World Series of Poker - WSOP

This is an overview of the World Series of Poker - the history of the WSOP and how it's changed since its inception in 1970. You can find specifics about Chris Moneymaker's experiences at the 2004 World Series of Poker in the Chris Moneymaker biography. If you'd like to try to qualify for the upcoming event, please visit the World Series of Poker section at Poker Stars for details of how you can win your way into the most prestigious poker event in the world.

Johnny Moss, the First "World Champion of Poker"

The first World Series of Poker at Binion's Horseshoe in Las Vegas was an invitational event with only seven players, organized by the Binion family in 1970. Before this, there had been a World Series of Poker invitational event in Reno, organized by Tom Morehead, but the origin of what has become the most widely recognized and celebrated poker tournament in the world really began with the 1970 Binions event.

Legend has it that the first World Series of Poker champion was determined by an anonymous vote of the players in the event. Apparently each player voted for himself when asked to vote for the "best player", so a 2nd vote had to be held, where the players were asked to vote for the 2nd best player at the table. The winner of this vote was Johnny Moss, the "Grand Old Man" of poker. Moss won three WSOP main events, making him and Stu Ungar the tied holders of the record for most World Series of Poker main event titles.

The Growth of the World Series of Poker

From 1971 to the present, the World Series of Poker has been formatted as a series of poker tournaments with cash prizes. New events and tournaments have been both added and removed through the years, and in 2006, the WSOP will consist of 42 separate tournaments. Winners of these events receive a gold bracelet.

The number of entrants has grown steadily over the last 3 decades, but the recent growth in entries has been unprecedented. In the year 2000 there were fewer than 5000 entrants in the various World Series of Poker tourneys, but the number of participants in 2005 was a tremendous 23,000 players. In five years, the number of players in the World Series of Poker main event more than quadrupled and almost quintupled.

In 2003 there were 839 entrants in the main event, the No Limit Holdem $10,000 buy-in tournament. That number more than tripled in 2004 when 2576 entrants participated, and then the number of participants doubled again in 2005 when 5619 players participated. In 2006, the number of players in the main event is capped at 8000 players.

The staggering growth in participation in the World Series of Poker can be attributed to two factors:

• Televised poker's increase in popularity.
• Online poker's increase in popularity.

These two factors have not only convinced many existing players to take a shot at bigger stakes and tournaments, but they have also recruited untold numbers of new poker players into the game of poker itself.

Binions, Harrahs, and the Rio Suites

All World Series of Poker events were held at Binion's Horsehoe in Vegas until 2005, when Harrahs, who had purchased Binion's in 2004, announced that the event would be held at the Rio Suites, another Vegas hotel and casino property owned by Harrahs. The final two days of the main event were held at Binion's out of respect for tradition though.

World Series of Poker Circuit Events and the Tournament of Champions

Harrahs and the World Series of Poker launched circuit tournaments in 2005 which were WSOP tournaments scheduled for various Harrahs owned properties throughout the USA. These circuit events qualify players for a new "Tournament of Champions" event that the World Series of Poker launched as a televised freeroll with a $2 million prize pool.