Explore Kansas Poker: Laws, Events, and Venues Guide

Kansas, a large state right in the middle of the United States, is perhaps best known in the world for the 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz, the first ever color picture; and for being “flatter than a pancake” – which, by the way, was scientifically disproven.

As for gambling, thankfully, they have a number of licenced and completely legal land casinos. Wordlcasinodirectory.com lists a total of 11 of them, to be precise. For poker rooms, however, the selection is a lot less ample. Pokeratlas.com only lists 3 running poker rooms in the entire state. Two of those rooms are in Kansas City, famous for being partly in Kansas, and partly in the neighboring state of Missouri.

The first saloons with regular card games sprang up in the area in the 1860’s. Cowboys coming over from Texas introduced their favorite games of chance to the locals, very much akin to Texan traveling gamblers (Doyle Brunson and his crew) introducing Texas Hold’em to Las Vegas a century later. The Kansas Historical Society’s website even mentions their state’s first “professional gambler”, a man named Luke Short. He used his gambling winnings to open up his very own saloon in Dodge City in 1883.

By that time, the Kansas gambling ban came into effect in 1868 – although enforcing it was not foolproof by far. By 1895, the prohibition was already weakened by the legalization of limited gambling at horse race tracks and fairs.

The big breakthrough of the 21st century for the modern Kansas gamblers came in 2007. That year, their state legislature passed the Kansas Expanded Lottery Act. This piece of legislation made way for the state’s first commercial casinos to open off of tribal land in the “four designated gaming zones”.

Famous Kansan Poker Players

Brandon Steven from Wichita, KS currently sits on top of the Kansas all time money list on Hendon. He has $3.217 million in live tournament earnings.

In October 2016, he took down the $50,000 buy-in Super High Roller at the Aria for $648,000. That is the biggest single live tournament cash of his career to date. Also, in 2013, he made it to the final table in the $111,111 WSOP One Drop High Roller, eventually busting in 7th place for $621,180. Three years later, in 2016, he took 10th place in the same event. Sadly, he was fined $1.1 million in an illegal gambling case in Kansas in 2019.

Second on that list, close behind Steven, is Kirk Morrison also from Wichita with $3.179 million in live tournament cashes. His biggest score to date is $2.011 million, which he got for finishing 2nd in the $25,500 No Limit Hold’em Championship at the WPT Five Star World Poker Classic in April 2007. He lost the heads-up battle for the title to 2001 WSOP Main Event champion Carlos Mortensen.