The World Series of Poker is the biggest group of poker tournaments in the world. It has been held annually in Las Vegas since 1970. The World Series culminates in the Main Event that has a $10,000 buy-in and is by far the most lucrative tournament in the world. The winner of each tournament in the World Series wins a large cash prize and a highly coveted and highly lucrative bracelet. Any person that sits down at a poker table wearing a winner´s bracelet from the World Series of Poker is given instant respect by everyone else at the table.
The World Series of Poker started in 1970 when Benny Binion, owner of the Horseshoe Casino, invited six of the best poker players in the world to his casino for a tournament that would have a winner chose by a secret ballot. The next year it turned into a tournament with cash prizes, with the winner to be determined by the last man standing. In 1976 the tradition of awarding a bracelet began. The tournament grew very slowly at first, and by 1982 there were still only 52 players. The next year satellite tournaments began to be held, giving people an opportunity to play their way into the tournament with a much lower buy-in than the standard $10,000 entry fee. This led to an explosion in the number of participants, and by 1987 more than 2,100 players participated.
The tournament then grew slowly but steadily until the year 2003. This was the watershed moment for the World Series. Chris Moneymaker, an accountant from Tennessee, became the first amateur player to ever win the Main Event. He won his seat into the tournament by winning a $39 satellite tournament at the online poker room, PokerStars. He won $2.5 million and kick started an amateur feeding frenzy in the tournament. Amateur players looked at how he had won his buy-in very cheaply online, and tried to follow his example. The field grew and grew every year until 2006, when another amateur, Jamie Gold, won the biggest poker prize ever in the Main Event, $12 million. Later that year the United States passed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Act, which barred online poker rooms from giving away seats to the Main Event. This led to a reduction in the numbers of entrants, and it has never come back to the numbers that played in 2006.
However, the prize for the Main Event is still huge, and the most recent winner, Jonathan Duhamel, won nearly $9 million. The World Series of Poker is now played at Harrah’s Rio Casino, which bought the rights from Binion’s Horseshoe in 2004. There are many poker variants played, including Texas hold ‘em, stud, lowball, Omaha hold ‘em, H.O.R.S.E, and S.H.O.E. There are currently 57 different events that make up the World Series.
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