The World Series of Poker
The World Series of Poker (WSOP) is a worldwide recognized land based poker tournament held annually in Las Vegas where poker players from across the world meet every year to compete amongst each other; over the years the popularity of the WSOP has grown tremendously because online poker rooms run satellites through which poker players can win free seats and even more packages that cover expenses of accommodation, buy in and in many cases provide you with pocket money for your stay at Las Vegas. The first WSOP event started off back in the seventies as a series of cash games featuring 5-card stud, 7-card stud, Texas Hold’em, razz, and deuce to seven low-ball draw. Back in those days, poker players collectively voted who the best player was. The vote back in the 70’s choose Johnny Moss as the hot-shot.
The following year 1971, the WSOP adopted its freez-out formula, and began the elimination format it still uses today. The number of preliminary events in the WSOP has also evolved considerably since its inception. In 1972, there was only one preliminary event in the WSOP, which was a $10,000 5-Card Stud tournament, before the main event started. Over the years, the WSOP began to pick up more and more events as its popularity was being spread all over the globe. Never forget that means of advertisement were limited back in those days and the popularity of the event was mostly developed through word of mouth. In 1975, the WSOP hosted four tournaments prior to the main event. Most events have always been a variety of poker variants, while the main attraction has always been the almighty Texas Holdem game. By the year 1979, the World Series of Poker had 11 tournaments before the main event, including a ladies event.
- Poker Legends of the time
- Johnny Moss
- Thomas “Amarillo Slim” Preston
- Crandall Addington
- Doyle Brunson
The WSOP continued to be a success in the eighties as it experienced what we call a steady development curve. The world of poker was operating under the radar, as the WSOP continued to grow in respect to numbers of players. In 1981, the WSOP had a total of twelve preliminary tournaments in addition to the main event with 75 entrants. By the year 1989, tournaments increased to thirteen plus the main event with 178 entrants. The 80’s had moments that WSOP lovers will never forget, in 1982 Jack Strauss won the main event after being down to a single chip. The legend behind says that Strauss found a single $500 chip under a napkin which was kept him going and eventually leading him to winning the bracelet.
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Poker Legends of the time:
- Jack Strauss
- Johnny Chan
- Phil Hellmuth
In 1990 the development of the Internet came to change the world, and surely the poker world and the WSOP specifically, the online poker concept was introduced, which eventually turned out to be a major boost to the event in means of advertising. The World Series of Poker saw its participants grow in numbers and its tournaments increasing in both figures and participants. Back in 1991 the WSOP hosted a total of 16 tournaments, plus the main event which attracted a total of 215 players. From 1991 throughout to the end of the decade the main winner of the WSOP whipped away a staggering $1,000,000 and a million US dollars back then was not what it is today. The event was held at the same place every year and it was pretty much more like a gathering back then. The event had nothing to do with the WSOP we know today, much less fireworks, less five star treatments and more cowboy attitude. The Binion’s Horseshoe was the meeting point and it was a classic, a great reminder of the golden years of the event in total. By the year 1999, the WSOP actually became a little bit smaller as it decreased the number of hosted tournaments to 15, but saw the total number of entrants grow to 393.
2004 was the year the WSOP officially took off, it was the beginning of a new era for the World Series of Poker. The show had started with Chris Moneymaker who won the event in 2003 and become an overnight millionaire and this is what gave birth to a remodeled American dream, the WSOP dream.
Moneymaker’s victory on the 2003 event attracted 2,500 players the following year as he enjoyed major exposure from media and online poker rooms on the web. In terms of mathematics this can be translated as a 300% increase in terms of players to the almighty gathering in 2004. Greg Raymer was the winner of the main event in 2004 and he saw his bank account go up by a staggering $5,000,000. Raymer was another WSOP winner who had secured his position through a satellite event similar to Moneymaker the previous year. This meant that the story of Chris Moneymaker was no more a dream as people saw it happen for a second consecutive year, it was now something any player could be targeting, it was the new target for any dedicated player practicing poker online.
More and more people were logging on to the internet trying to become popular in the rooms, trying to trace a winning pattern or trying to realize what the philosophy behind the stars of the industry was. In the following year the WSOP was becoming a phenomenon, there were 5,619 players entering the main event concluding the paycheck of the winner would be increasing. Joe Hachem the winner of the event banked a $7,500,000 payment for his victory and it was in reality the beginning of the boom for the WSOP. In 2006 the event winner was claiming a $12,000,000 payment and the news from the WSOP were travelling like madness across the world, the event grew even more in the same year to 45 happenings and the recognition of the WSOP was now going global, the event was officially Talk of the Town or even better Talk of the World. The 12 million dollars up for grabs in 2006 were secured by Jaimie Gold and he was just another overnight millionaire and another idol for online poker players across the world.
The year 2007 was when the WSOP adopted a real international character; it was the year when the event saw more and more players from around the world travelling to the USA following their dream of taking away the winning paycheck. Only two well-known pros, Lee Watkinson and Hevad Khan, landed on to a position on the final table, and Khan which was an internet pro was an unknown face at the final table of the event. The event hosted international poker faces like Jon Kalmar from the UK, Danish Poker Star Philip Hilm, Canadian ace Tuan Lam, Alex Kravchenko from the ex-soviet union and Raymond Rahme all the way from South Africa, but Jerry Yang ended up being the winner of the event, paying him out an unbelievable $8,250,000. Very few players paid attention to Jerry Yang before they realized he had stolen the show, Yang was an amateur, whose strategy was relying on pictures of his kids and his faith in the man upstairs to bring him the chips, he had the second shortest stack when the final table began an he seemed to be no real threat to the major players. Opponents and spectators quickly realized Yang’s strategy as they saw chip leader Hilm transferring his entire stack to Yang in only two poker hands.
The WSOP continues today to be the biggest and most respected event of the online poker community which is held every year. During the event we make available positions to satellites hosted at the world’s most respected online poker rooms through which you can qualify for a position on the WSOP and trigger your skills and ability to get listed poker’s hall of fame. We would like to thank Wikipedia for providing us with the Information; if you would like to read more about the WSOP please reach out to the appropriate page on Wikipedia.
Below you can view the WSOP 2010 schedule as it has been published at the WSOP official website. World Series of Poker and WSOP are trademarks of Harrah’s License Company, LLC. You can follow WSOP on Twitter