1991 Super Bowl of Poker
The Super Bowl of Poker was the second most prestigious poker tournament in the world during the 1980s. While the World Series of Poker was already drawing larger crowds as more and more amateurs sought it out, the SBOP "was an affair limited almost exclusively to pros and hard-core amateurs."
The 1991 Tournament was the last SBOP. After Caesar's Casino in Las Vegas closed its poker room, Amarillo Slim had to find a new location for the event and the best deal that he could find forced participants to drive two hours. This resulted in the smallest SBOP fields ever; the Main Event only had 12 participants. Because of the small size of the field, fewer people were paid than in previous tournaments and the prestige of winning the events suffered a setback that doomed the SBOP and made 1991 the last year for the tournament.
The winners of the tournament, however, continued to represent some of the biggest names in poker. Barbara Enright, the only woman in the Poker Hall of Fame, won the ladies event. Jack Keller, another Hall of Famer, won two events, the $1,000 Pot Limit Omaha and the $10,000 Main Event. Having won the event in 1984, this was his second time to have won the $10,000 Main Event.
Prior to SBOP, the only high dollar tournament a person could enter was the WSOP. "The World Series of Poker was so successful that everybody wanted more than one tournament," Amarillo Slim said. Slim called upon his connections and friendships with poker's elite to start a new tournament in February 1979. Before the SBOP had developed a reputation of its own, many of the most respected names in poker attended the tournament "more to support Slim and take advantage of the very fat cash games the event would obviously inspire." Slim modelled his SBOP after the WSOP with several events and a $10,000 Texas Hold'em Main Event.
One of the principal differences between the WSOP and the SBOP was the prize structure. The WSOP's prize structure was flat, ensuring more people received smaller pieces of the prize pool. The SBOP typically used a 60-30-10 payout structure. In other words, only the first three places received money and generally in the ratio of 60% to first place, 30% to second place, and 10% to third. This payment schedule dominated in the SBOP for the first 5 years of the event, but as the event grew the number of payouts increased while keeping the payout schedule top heavy.
Key
Event 1: $500 Limit Hold'em
Number of buy-ins: 145Total prize pool: $72,500Number of payouts: 18Reference:
| Place | Name | Prize |
| 1st | Buster Jackson | $29000 |
| 2nd | Bill Nelson | $14500 |
| 3rd | Dave Anderson | $7250 |
| 4th | Paul Sherr | $4713 |
| 5th | John Stephanian | $3625 |
| 6th | Tom Fisher | $2538 |
| 7th | J.C. Pearson | $1812 |
| 8th | Todd Brunson | $1450 |
| 9th | Ed Gar | $1087 |
Event 2: $500 Limit Omaha
Number of buy-ins: 79Total prize pool: $39,500Number of payouts: 9Reference:
Number of buy-ins: 99Total prize pool: $49,500Number of payouts: 8Reference:
| Place | Name | Prize |
| 1st | Rich Korbin | $19800 |
| 2nd | John Andiovec | $12375 |
| 3rd | Chuck McCormick | $4950 |
| 4th | Bob Addington | $3465 |
| 5th | Tommy Hugnagle | $2970 |
| 6th | Eric Drache | $2475 |
| 7th | Jim Doman | $1980 |
| 8th | Dave Anderson | $1485 |
Event 4: $1,000 Limit Ace To Five Lowball
Number of buy-ins: 29Total prize pool: $29,000Number of payouts: 8Reference:
| Place | Name | Prize |
| 1st | John Bonetti | $11600 |
| 2nd | Bruce Coons | $7250 |
| 3rd | Billy Baxter* | $2900 |
| 4th | Fred Sigur | $2030 |
| 5th | Ed Pellegrini | $1740 |
| 6th | Don Zewin | $1450 |
| 7th | Bob Pendergast | $1160 |
| 8th | Wayne Sharpe | $870 |
Number of buy-ins: 55Total prize pool: $55,000Number of payouts: 9Reference:
| Place | Name | Prize |
| 1st | Tommy Hufnagle | $22000 |
| 2nd | John Cernuto | $13700 |
| 3rd | Ernie Ostreicher | $5500 |
| 4th | Gene Fisher | $3850 |
| 5th | Amarillo Slim* | $3025 |
| 6th | Brad Nadell | $2475 |
| 7th | Jim Doman | $1925 |
| 8th | Bret Carter | $1375 |
| 9th | Joel Cohn | $1100 |
Event 5: $1,000 Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo
Number of buy-ins: 36Total prize pool: $36,000Number of payouts: 8Reference:
| Place | Name | Prize |
| 1st | Ed Pellegrini | $14400 |
| 2nd | Ralph Hoots | $9000 |
| 3rd | K Rusi | $3600 |
| 4th | David Brody | $2520 |
| 5th | Brian Nadell | $2160 |
| 6th | George Feher | $1800 |
| 7th | Ed Clemente | $1440 |
| 8th | Ed Gallant | $1080 |
Event 6: $ 1,000 Pot Limit Omaha
Number of buy-ins: 38Total prize pool: $38,000Number of payouts: 9Reference:
Event 7: $1,000 Limit Seven Card Razz
Number of buy-ins: 28Total prize pool: $28,000Number of payouts: 4Reference:
| Place | Name | Prize |
| 1st | John Cernuto | $14000 |
| 2nd | Brian Nadell | $7000 |
| 3rd | Morris Kessler | $4200 |
| 4th | Richard Schwartz | $2800 |
Event 8: $1,000 Limit Hold'em
Number of buy-ins: 57Total prize pool: $57,000Number of payouts: 9Reference:
| Place | Name | Prize |
| 1st | Rick Riolo | $22800 |
| 2nd | Ed Edmundson | $14250 |
| 3rd | Hoyt Corkins | $5700 |
| 4th | Mike Laing | $3990 |
| 5th | Al Korsin | $3135 |
| 6th | Ralph Levine | $2565 |
| 7th | Susy Thunder | $1995 |
| 8th | Don Williams | $1425 |
| 9th | Dave Anderson | $1140 |
Event 9: $1,000 Limit Omaha
Number of buy-ins: 30Total prize pool: $30,000Number of payouts: 5Reference:
Event 10: $1,000 Limit Seven Card Stud
Number of buy-ins: 31Total prize pool: $31,000Number of payouts: 5Reference:
| Place | Name | Prize |
| 1st | Mori Eskand | $13950 |
| 2nd | Gail Ross | $7750 |
| 3rd | Fred Sigur | $4650 |
| 4th | Harvey Krendel | $3100 |
| 5th | Alma McClelland | $1550 |
Event 11: $1,500 Limit Hold'em
Number of buy-ins: 43Total prize pool: $64,500Number of payouts: 9Reference:
| Place | Name | Prize |
| 1st | Bill O'Connor | $25800 |
| 2nd | John Bonetti | $16125 |
| 3rd | Todd Brunson | $6450 |
| 4th | Hal Kant | $4515 |
| 5th | Allan Stonum | $3548 |
| 6th | Frank Henderson | $2903 |
| 7th | Amarillo Slim* | $2257 |
| 8th | T. J. Cloutier* | $1612 |
| 9th | Dan Sargent | $1290 |
Event 12: $2,500 No-Limit Deuce To Seven Lowball with Rebuys
Number of buy-ins: Not RecordedTotal prize pool: Not RecordedNumber of payouts: Not Recorded
Event 13: $1,500 Limit Hold'em
Number of buy-ins: 34Total prize pool: $51,000Number of payouts: 5Reference:
Event 14: $400 Seven Card Stud (Ladies)
Number of buy-ins: 13Total prize pool: $5,200Number of payouts: 5Reference:
Number of buy-ins: 12Total prize pool: $95,000Number of payouts: 3Reference: