Puggy Pearson
Puggy Pearson or Walter Clyde Pearson was born in 1929 and was raised in Tennessee with nine brothers and sisters. He was known as Puggy from a young age so the name stuck. He left school early and at 17 years of age, he joined the U.S. Navy. It was here that he developed his skill in the game of poker.
Puggy Pearson
During his poker career, Pearson won four World Series of Poker bracelets. He was actually one of the players invited by Jack and Benny Binion to play in the very first WSOP event in 1970. In 1971 Pearson won his first bracelet in the Limit Seven Card Stud event and was runner up in the Main Event. He was also runner up in the Main event in 1972 but it was 1973 when he actually won a bracelet in the $10,000 No Limit Hold’em World Championship Main Event. He won another two bracelets this year in the $1000 No Limit Hold’em event and the $4000 Limit Seven Card Stud event.
Pearson took in almost half a million dollars in prize money from all tournaments and over $250,000 was from his 11 WSOP cashes. Pearson played poker for many decades and was still playing just before his death in 2006 at the age of 27. He is considered to be one of the pioneers of the game of poker that we see today. It was Pearson who actually thought up the idea of the freezeout tournament which was an idea which the World Series of Poker was based on when ‘Nick the Greek’ Dandolos brought the idea to Benny Binion the legendary casino owner. He is a true poker legend and in 1987 was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame.
