The series of events is being held annually in Las Vegas, Nevada between June and July, with its Main Event culminating in November. The World Series of poker is the most prestigious poker competition today, but it wasn't like this in the very beginning. Check this article and learn everything about the history of the WSOP.
The Beginning
The precursor of the WSOP was the Texas Gamblers Reunion held in 1969 at the Holiday Casino in Reno. The event was organized as a simple gathering for the top American poker players and was invented by Tom Moore and Vic Vickrey.
The two decided to pass on the opportunity of hosting an event like this, and profiting from the occasion, Benny Binion, the owner of Horseshoe Casino decided to organize a new poker competition instead.
The first edition of the competition remained largely unnoticed, with barely someone outside of Las Vegas knowing about it. In fact, the event wasn't even a tournament per se, since the winner was decided after a vote among the contestants after several tables of poker.
After the first event, Binion decided to change the format of the competition and implemented a buy-in system that permitted real prize moneys to be given out to the winner. The WSOP soon entered into mainstream spotlight, after Amarillo Slim Preston's victory in 1972, when he transformed his triumph into a big media spectacle.
The Rise to Fame
After Preston's media campaign, the next World Series of Poker caught the attention of mainstream television broadcasts, and the 1973 event became the first edition to be broadcasted live on television by CBS.
During the next years the poker scene expanded further and each year more people attended the event. It was during the second half of the 70'ies when poker legends like Puggy Pearson, Doyle Brunson, and others rose to fame.
The first major change in the format of the competition was in 1978, when the prize money for the WSOP main event has been divided to reward the top 5 players of the competition. This clearly points out the fact, that the tournament enjoyed a huge popularity and rewarding only a single person was not enough.
1979 was a critical year in the history of the WSOP, when a totally unknown and amateur player called Hal Fowler managed to win the Main Event. This shocked many professional players, but encouraged a lot of amateurs across the country and from abroad to visit the event trying out their luck.
The following year was also a turning point, because after Stu "The Kid" Ungar, a player from New York won the Main Event, the television station NBC decided to broadcast the next year's event on national television. This gave the chance to the WSOP to be watched by several million Americans across the country.
The WSOP Today
In the early '90ies the WSOP already was already a well-know and famous international poker tournament. It was in 1990 when the first non-American player, named Mansour Matloubi, managed to win the prestigious prize. In 1991, the first prize above one million dollars was awarded.
During the next years it soon came to light that the old Horseshoe Casino was not big enough to hold the event. This is the reason why the tournament moved to the Rio All-Suites Casino and Hotel in 2004, at which point up to several thousand people attended the competition.
Probably one of the most important years of the WSOP was 2003, when Chris Moneymaker won the Main Event. This is because Moneymaker was a completely unknown player who got qualified from winning a satellite. After this, the championship witnessed a huge boom, since seeing Moneymaker's victory, more and more people were determined to participate.
Nowadays the WSOP is one of the biggest and most prestigious poker tournaments on the planet. Some people believe it's not possible this poker competition could become even bigger, but looking at the WSOP's long history of success, we may still expect some surprises to come.