World Series of Poker History

The first World Series of Poker took place in 1970 at Binion's Horseshoe Casino in Downtown Vegas. It was Benny Binion's invitational to a dozen of the best poker players he knew. (Tom Moore is sometimes credited with holding the first WSOP in 1968 in Reno at the Holiday Hotel and Casino, but it did not have continuity to the Binion event, which is considered the inauguration of the WSOP. Crandell Addington won the Reno event.)

The inaugural event was a series of cash games: Five-Card Stud, Seven-Card Stud, Deuce-to-Seven Lowball, Razz, and Texas Hold'em. Seven players -- Johnny Moss, Doyle Brunson, Amarillo Slim Preston, Brian "Sailor" Roberts, Puggy Pearson, Crandall Addington and Carl Cannon -- were all there. They played to a packed rail of spectators. Johnny Moss was chosen as the best player by a vote of the participants present. He won a silver cup.

Johnny Moss and Benny Binion went back a good many years. Over 20 years before, Binion had financed Johnny Moss in a heads-up match at Binion's with Nick the Greek Dandalos in what was then billed as "the biggest poker game of all time." The match lasted five months and covered every version of poker known. When Nick the Greek finally admitted defeat, he famously said, "Mr. Moss, I have to let you go." The 1970 event was designed to be another try at the "biggest poker game of all time." Once more Binion was the host, and Johnny Moss was the winner.

Thirty-six years after this first year, the "Main Event" in the Thirty-Seventh Edition of the World Series of Poker broke all previous records with almost 9,000 entrants, vying for a $12 million dollar first prize. From the 1949 heads-up version of "the biggest poker game of all time" to the 2006 WSOP, the "biggest game" got very, very big indeed!

Though the numbers have mushroomed in the 21st century, the structure of the WSOP has been fairly stable over the years, with a few changes here and there. In year two, the event turned into a competition rather than a vote. It was a freeze-out tournament with just one game - Texas Hold'em. There were six entrants in all, and Johnny Moss won again, taking the whole prize of $30,000. It was not known as the "Main Event" yet because it was the only event, but it surely was a championship!

Benny Binion continued to "own" the event and act as host, organizer and rule-maker. When Binion's finally succumbed to the changes of new generations and a new and growing Las Vegas, Harrah's purchased the assets, among which was the intellectual property associated with the World Series of Poker. As of 2005 the event would no longer be held at Binion's, but rather at a Harrah's property on the Las Vegas Strip. Rio was selected for 2005. The finals of the Main Event were still held at the Horseshoe for old time's sake.

While Benny Binion still held firmly the reins of the event, he made several innovations that helped make it the number one poker festival each year.

The first was a change that made all the difference in the world to the WSOP: It became an open tournament - open to any player who was willing to come up with the entry fee. In 1971 it was $5,000. It was raised to $10,000 in 1972 and has been there ever since. Enrollment increased quickly after that from a handful to several dozen participants. In 1982 the number of entrants exceeded 100 for the first time.

A second innovation early on was to expand the WSOP to a true series of different events, and not just a single, Texas Hold'em tourney. In 1972, Binion's added Five-Card Stud as a WSOP event, and Bill Boyd won it. Amarillo Slim Preston won Texas Hold'em, which thus became the "Championship Event" and later became known as the "Main Event" (in recognition of the fact that all bracelet winners are champions.)

In 1973, the WSOP expanded considerably, adding "No Limit Hold'em" as an event separate from the Championship Event, and Deuce-to-Seven Lowball, Razz, and Seven-Card Stud. Five-Card Stud was dropped, and returned only one more time, which was the following year.

Stud, Hold'em and different lowball games (Deuce-to-Seven Draw and Razz) dominated the events in the early years. In 1977 a ladies' event (Seven-Card Stud) was added.

Then Binion's third innovation came into the picture in 1978: Finalists in the Championship event would get a share of the purse, rather than have it be a winner-take-all. Those who made it to the top five (later, more) could all share in the money.

With the advent of several different events, Binion's Horseshoe became the host for not just one big tournament, but several, in series: Eventually, an active participant in the WSOP could spend a few weeks doing nothing but showing up at Binion's to play cards. In modern times the event is spread over several venues and still takes well over a month to complete.

In addition to the money prizes, the first place winner of each separate event in the WSOP would win the equivalent of Johnny Moss's silver cup - a gold bracelet, inscribed with the event, the year, the winner and WSOP. For many years it has become commonplace to refer to the first place finisher of a WSOP event as "a bracelet winner." In the last few years the WSOP has run over 50 different events in a addition to the "Main Event." Sometimes these different events would sport the same game. For example, in 1984 there were two No Limit Hold'em events and one Limit Hold'em event, in addition to the Championship Event.

A few times the WSOP has expanded its reach and diversity, offering special events for women or for casino employees. Mixed games have been offered from time to time, like HORSE and SHOE. One year Chinese Poker was offered. Lots of different lowball games and split-pot games have been on the bill as well. Nevertheless, the main staple of the WSOP in recent years has been Hold'em, Stud and Omaha, with Razz, Omaha 8 and Lowball thrown in for variety.

Betting Structures

No Limit Hold'em has been part of the tournament ever since the beginning, and starting in the early years, there was always a separate event called "No Limit Hold'em" in addition to the "Main Event" or "Championship Event." Starting in 1983 the WSOP added as separate events different betting structures. For example, in that year, a bracelet was awarded both in Limit Hold'em and in No Limit Hold'em. A bracelet was awarded in Limit Omaha that year, the only version of Omaha on the card. The following year there were a couple different events with Pot Limit Omaha.

The Main Event

Throughout its history, the WSOP "Main Event" has always been considered the crème de la crème of poker tournaments, and it has always attracted the most entrants and the biggest prize money. It is sometimes still called the "Championship" event, and this is potentially confusing. When Harrah's took over the WSOP, it inaugurated a "WSOP Tournament of Champions," in which Annie Duke took the $2 million first prize. Mike Sexton won it the second year, but after that the TOC was not held. It had caused a bit of confusion in the public mind, as it was not part of the familiar WSOP structure.

The Main Event winner is unofficially considered the "World Champion" of poker. The prize money has grown substantially since the 1971 $30,000 winner-take-all. The record of $12 million came in 2006 when Jamie Gold beat a field of 8,773. After Congress passed a law against financial transactions involving on-line gaming, the number of entrants in the main event declined somewhat, as did the prize money. The following year, Jerry Yang won $8.25 million over a field of 6,358.

A number of seasoned professionals persuaded the WSOP to add a $50,000 buy-in HORSE event, which provides a better venue for a pro to strut his or her stuff than the Main Event, which some of the old-timers regard as overrun by amateurs with little live tournament experience. Chip Reese won the 2006 event ($1.72 million) and Freddy Deeb won in 2007 ($2.28 million). The prize money is paid, by tradition, on the spot in cardboard boxes full of cash.

The Entry Fee and Satellites

Since 1972 the entry fee for the WSOP Main Event has been $10,000. Starting in the 1990's or before, some poker rooms would hold tournaments, for example, a 200-person multi-table tournament with an entry fee of $50, in which the first prize would be an entry into the WSOP Main Event. Winning such a prize became known as "qualifying" for the tournament and the competition leading to the prize was called a "satellite tournament." Card rooms found that they could "layer" their satellites into a hierarchy, offering not only a ticket to the WSOP Main Event, but other WSOP tournament entries as well.

With the advent of online gaming in the 21st century, satellite tournaments really took off. In 2003 at the Main Event, the winner was Chris Moneymaker, who "qualified" for the event online. Up until that time, most of the entrants paid the $10k entry fee, and there were 838 of them. Just three years later, 8,773 entrants - ten times as many -- appeared for the Main Event. Most of them had "qualified" through satellite tournaments. The WSOP had become, in effect, a tournament of tournament winners.