WSOP history

Started by Benny Binion
Benny Binion is the man behind the World Series of Poker. In 1970, he gathered a number of top class poker players from all over the United States. The plan was to let them play each other in public to find out who was the best poker player in the world. Binion named the event the World Series of Poker and the tournament took place at Binions Horseshoe in Las Vegas. The players put up 10,000 dollars each and the game played was No Limit Texas Hold'em. The first year the participating players decided the winner through a vote. The legendary Johnny Moss got the most votes for best overall player, and thus became the first ever world champion of poker. The WSOP was held again in 1971, but with a freezeout structure. Johnny Moss saw all his opponents get eliminated and he was crowned the world champion of poker for a second time in a row.

Astounding growth of participants
The growth of the WSOP has been astounding, especially over the last few years. In 1972 when Thomas "Amarillo Slim" Preston won the title and $80,000, the tournament had only 8 participants. In 2000 Chris Ferguson beat 518 opponents to become World Champion. The win gave him $1,500,000 in prize money. In 2004 the number of participants had grown to 2,576 and the first prize was $5,000,000 (Greg Raymer won the tournament). The reining champion Joseph Hachem defeated 5,618 opponents to win $7,500,000.

Chris Moneymakers fantastic victory in 2003 is without any doubt one of the main factors behind this amazing development. His entire entry fee to the championship through online poker had been $39 and the win gave him $2,500,000. This gave online poker players around the world hope and lots of people discovered the game.

Winners get a gold bracelet
The WSOP has grown also when it comes to number of events. During the first two years there was only one tournament, the main championship. In 1972 one more event was added, a five-card stud event. Since then more events have been added every year. In the 2004 WSOP a total of 33 events were held varying from 7-card-stud hi/lo, Omaha pot limit, Texas Hold'em limit, pot limit, no limit to other types of poker such as razz and lowball. The winner of each WSOP event gets a precious World Series of Poker Gold Bracelet. Today that is one of the most prestigious prices a poker player can win.