It’s easy to look back at 1989 in the poker world and see it as a completely different world. The footage looks slightly grainy, almost like you’re looking back at it through sepia-tinted sunglass that would prevent any opponent looking into the whites of your eyes.

However, if you break it down, the 1989 World Series of Poker Main Event has more in common with modern poker than you might initially think. A young hopeful who was a wizard at mathematics overcame an established, battle hardened pro. Prize money was up, coverage was bigger than before and headlines reached the mainstream media.

A lot of the similarities between 1989 and modern poker are down to the presence of Phil Hellmuth, Johnny Chan’s opponent in the 1989 WSOP Main Event heads-up. It’s easy to say that The Poker Brat is a bigger draw even than ‘The Orient Express’, as Chan was known back then. In 1989, however, it was all about Chan, and for good reason.

Chan had won both the 1987 and 1988 WSOP Main Event.