World Series of Poker (WSOP)
World Series of Poker (WSOP)
Las Vegas is the epicenter of all things casino, so it’s no surprise that it’s also the location of the World Series of Poker (WSOP). The World Series of Poker (WSOP) is a series of poker tournaments held each year in Las Vegas. Caesars Entertainment Corporation, formerly known as Harrah’s Entertainment, is a regular sponsor of the event.
The World Series of Poker (WSOP) is a popular event for gambling professionals that is worth skipping everything else to watch. Do you want to learn more about this global event? Do you want to know everything that happened during the event before you even started playing poker? Then read this article to learn everything there is to know about the WSOP.
An Overview of the World Series of Poker (WSOP)
The WSOP was founded in the 1970s by Benny Binion, who invited a number of the most well-known poker players to a tournament at the Horseshoe Casino. The tournament had a start and a finish time. At the time, the winner was determined by a secret ballot that included the names of the tournament’s seven participants. Each event’s winners receive monetary prizes as well as WSOP Bracelets.
The monetary prize is determined by the number of participants and the amount of buy-ins. The World Series of Poker (WSOP) has grown in popularity among the poker community and the general public over the years. The event has grown in terms of the large number of participants as well as the number of events.
Every year, the World Series of Poker tournament concludes with the $10,000 no-limit hold’em Main Event. This main event attracts thousands of participants from all over the world on a regular basis. The main event winner receives the most coveted WSOP bracelet as well as a multi-million dollar cash prize. The winner of the WSOP Main Event is also known as the World Poker Champion.
As of the end of 2017, the World Series of Poker consisted of seventy-four different events, each of which featured a variety of major poker variations. For several years now, variations of Texas hold’em have accounted for more than half of the total events at the WSOP. The events usually take place over the course of a day or two in June and July, though the Main Event final table has been moved to November since 2008.
For example, due to the US presidential election in 2012 and 2016, the final tables of the Main Event began in October in both years. However, by May of 2017, the WSOP had returned to the original date of the Main Event’s conclusion and crowning of the winner, which was July.
Highlights of WSOP
From 2000 to 2006, the number of World Series of Poker participants increased dramatically on a yearly basis. Following the 2006 event, there was new online gambling legislation that limited the number of qualifiers for the event.
This resulted in a decrease in the number of participants in 2007, but an increase in the number of entrants in 2008. In the year 2000, a total of 4,780 people attended the WSOP’s various events.
In 2005, the figure had risen to more than 23,000 participants. The number of participants in the main event increased dramatically in 2006, from 839 in 2003 to a total of 8,773 in 2006. Over the next eleven years, the number of participants fluctuated between 6,300 and 7,200.
Highlights of winnings at the WSOP
Many poker professionals have distinguished themselves from the crowd at WSOP events. These players have made a name for themselves in the industry, and there is no way the WSOP will be discussed without their names being mentioned. In this section, we will look at the highlights of professional poker players who have made history at the World Series of Poker over time.
At the World Series of Poker, Phil Hellmuth has the most winnings and the most bracelets. Over the years, he has amassed a total of 15 bracelets. Phil Ivey, Doyle Brunson, and Johnny Chan finished second in the hierarchy of the most celebrated winners at the event, each with ten bracelets from various events. Crandell Addington is also the only player to have finished in the top ten of the WSOP Main Event eight times. It is important to note that this occurred in earlier years when the poker field was still very small in comparison to what it is today.
Steve Albini, an American musician and record producer, Jennifer Tilly, an American actress, Jan Vang Sorensen, a Danish soccer player, and Patrick Bruel, a French singer and actor, are among the poker bracelet winners who have also achieved fame in other fields. There have been other non-bracelet WSOP events in the recent past. Ante Up for Africa and the World Series of Rock Paper Scissors are two of the most well-known events.
Four professional players who have won the WSOP Main Event multiple times in their careers are highlighted below.
- Johnny Moss – 1970, 1971, and 1974
- Doyle Brunson – 1976 and 1977
- Stu Ungar – 1980, 1981, and 1997
- Johnny Chan – 1987 and 1988
Main Event of the WSOP
The World Series of Poker’s Main Event has always been the popular $10,000 no-limit Texas Hold’em buy-in tournament. The winner of the first WSOP event in 1970 was determined by a secret ballot, so there was no special event tournament at the time. In 1971, the buy-in for the tournament was set at $5,000. However, the Main Event buy-in has been $10,000 no-limit Texas Hold’em since 1972 and has remained constant over time.
Winners of the WSOP main event receive prominence in addition to the largest cash prize and a gold bracelet at the end of the event. Their photos can also be found in the Binion’s Gallery of Champions. In addition, any winner of the WSOP Main Event is automatically crowned World Champion of Poker. There has been a lot of backlash following the event’s winners being crowned world champions, simply because many people believe that no-limit hold’em is not the best game for determining a poker champion.
Daniel Negreanu requested that the Main Event be switched to pot-limit hold’em in 2002, citing the fact that pot-limit required a more comprehensive and complete set of poker skills than the no-limit variant. Of course, this request was never granted, and Negreanu himself admitted that such a change was unlikely. Following the addition of the $50,000 buy-in HORSE Poker Players Championship event to the WSOP, many top professional poker players, including Daniel Negreanu, agreed that the tournament event is unquestionably the ultimate determiner of the world poker champion.
The $50,000 buy-in tournament, which is five times the regular buy-in at the WSOP Main Event, has discouraged proletarians from participating in the event. It is critical to note that the variety of games available at the $50,000 buy-in tournament necessitates a greater understanding of poker games.
Chip Reese, a professional poker player, won the first $50,000 buy-in event in 2006. The event was staged as a HORSE tournament. In 2010, the event format was changed to a ‘8-game’ format, which included 2-7 triple draw and no-limit hold’em pot-limit Omaha.
The tournament was renamed The Poker Players Championship at this point. Michael Mizrachi won the inaugural edition of the redesigned tournament. Following Chip Reese’s death in December 2007, the winner of the event receives the ‘Chip Reese Memorial Trophy’ in addition to the prize money and the bracelet.
Memorable Events at WSOP Main Events
There have been a number of memorable events at the World Series of Poker main events. The following are the top events among these:
- Jack Straus’s Emotional Comeback Win: In 1982, Jack Straus had an emotional comeback win after discovering that he still had a single $500 chip when he thought he was out of the tournament. Straus’ victory at the event was truly memorable.
- Chris Moneymaker and Greg Raymer have both qualified for the WSOP Main Event via satellite tournaments at PokerStars online card room in 2003 and 2004, respectively. Surprisingly, they both won the events.
- Jerry Yang Moment: Yang won the Main Event tournament in 2007, despite only having been playing poker for two years prior. He won a seat in the Main Event tournament by winning a $225 buy-in satellite tournament at the Pechanga Resort and Casino in California.
- The conclusion of the 1988 World Series of Poker Main Event, as seen in the film Rounders.
Results of WSOP Main Event since Inception
The WSOP Main Event is an opportunity for professional poker players to demonstrate their skills at the table. Professionals from all over the world attend this event to compete for the title of world poker champion. However, only one player receives the event’s most coveted prize. Since the event’s inception, the players who have won and their cash prizes have been highlighted as follows.
| Player | Year | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| Johnny Moss | 1970 | Not Available |
| Johnny Moss | 1971 | $30,000 |
| Thomas ‘Amarillo Slim’ Preston, Jr. | 1972 | $80,000 |
| Walter ‘Puggy’ Pearson | 1973 | $130,000 |
| Johnny Moss | 1974 | $160,000 |
| Brian ‘Sailor’ Robert | 1975 | $210,000 |
| Doyle Brunson | 1976 | $220,000 |
| Doyle Brunson | 1977 | $340,000 |
| Bobby Baldwin | 1978 | $210,000 |
| Hal Fowler | 1979 | $270,000 |
| Stu Ungar | 1980 | $385,000 |
| Stu Ungar | 1981 | $375,000 |
| Jack Straus | 1982 | $520,000 |
| Tom McEvoy | 1983 | $540,000 |
| Jack Keller | 1984 | $660,000 |
| Bill Smith | 1985 | $700,000 |
| Berry Johnston | 1986 | $570,000 |
| Johnny Chan | 1987 | $625,000 |
| Johnny Chan | 1988 | $700,000 |
| Phil Hellmuth, Jr. | 1989 | $755,000 |
| Mansour Matloubi | 1990 | $895,000 |
| Brad Daugherty | 1991 | $1,000,000 |
| Hamid Dastmalchi | 1992 | $1,000,000 |
| Jim Bechtel | 1993 | $1,000,000 |
| Russ Hamilton | 1994 | $1,000,000 |
| Dan Harrington | 1995 | $1,000,000 |
| Huck Seed | 1996 | $1,000,000 |
| Stu Ungar | 1997 | $1,000,000 |
| Scotty Nguyen | 1998 | $1,000,000 |
| Noel Furlong | 1999 | $1,000,000 |
| Christ Ferguson | 2000 | $1,500,000 |
| Juan Carlos Mortensen | 2001 | $1,500,000 |
| Robert Barkonyi | 2002 | $2,000,000 |
| Chris Moneymaker | 2003 | $2,500,000 |
| Greg Raymer | 2004 | $5,000,000 |
| Joe Hachem | 2005 | $7,500,000 |
| Jamie Gold | 2006 | $12,000,000 |
| Jerry Yang | 2007 | $8,250,000 |
| Peter Eastgate | 2008 | $9,152,416 |
| Joe Cada | 2009 | $8,547,042 |
| Jonathan Duhamel | 2010 | $8,944,310 |
| Pius Heinz | 2011 | $8,715,638 |
| Greg Merson | 2012 | $8,531,853 |
| Ryan Riess | 2013 | $8,361,570 |
| Martin Jacobson | 2014 | $10,000,000 |
| Joe McKeehen | 2015 | $7,683,346 |
| Qui Nguyen | 2016 | $8,005,310 |
| Scott Blumstein | 2017 | $8,150,000 |
| John Cynn | 2018 | $8,800,000 |
Records of Players at World Series of Poker
Since the inception of the World Series of Poker in 1970, Johnny Moss and Stu Ungar are the only poker players to have won the WSOP Main Event three times. It is critical to note that Johnny Moss’s first victory was based on an election, not on his performance at the event. However, if his first win is counted, Moss, Doyle Brunson, Johnny Chan, and Stu Ungar are the only poker players to have won the WSOP Main Event in consecutive years.
Phil Hellmuth has the best WSOP record, including the most WSOP final tables, WSOP cashes, and WSOP bracelets. Hellmuth is also the only poker player in history to have won the Main Event at both the WSOP Europe and the WSOP.
With the recent growth of the World Series of Poker, the prize pool of the main event has grown enormously, to the point where event winners immediately become the top money winners of the WSOP as well as in poker tournament history.
Prior to July of 2012, the top seven players in the all-time WSOP Earnings list were Main Event winners from 2005 to 2011. Among these champions, Jamie Gold had the largest prize pool in the tournament’s history.
Among the top seven players, however, Daniel Negreanu remains the all-time leader. Surprisingly, Negreanu has never won a WSOP Main Event. He did, however, win the inaugural WSOP Main Event in Asia Pacific in 2013. Following Negreanu on the leaderboard are Daniel Colman and Antonio Esfandiari, both of whom have yet to win the Main Event in Las Vegas.
WSOP Player of the Year
Since 2004, the player with the most accumulated points during the WSOP has been awarded the Player of the Year award. As with the 2013 WSOP event, nine players have won a total of ten awards, with Negreanu winning twice. It is important to note that only general events in which all poker players can participate count towards the total number of points accumulated. In other words, points earned in other events, such as Casino Employee, Seniors, and Ladies, do not count toward the required points.
Also, as of the 2006 WSOP, the $50,000 buy-in HORSE competition has no bearing on the winner of the POY award. Prior to 2010, the Player of the Year award was based solely on the performance of players at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, but beginning in 2011, the World Series of Poker Europe has also become a component of the Player of the Year award points.
WSOP Poker Hall of Fame
The World Series of Poker Hall of Fame has inducted forty-two professional poker players over the years. Before a player can be inducted into the prestigious Hall of Fame, several criteria must be met. To qualify, you must have played for high stakes, competed against renowned top players, and consistently performed well enough to earn the respect of other seasoned poker professionals. Non-players are also honored by the Poker Hall of Fame, but in order to be chosen, the individual must have made constructive and long-lasting contributions to the overall success and growth of poker.
Women in World Series of Poker
Currently, only a few professional female poker players compete in the World Series of Poker tournament each year. In fact, only about 5% of women in the poker industry compete in all tournament events during the annual World Series of Poker tournament. Although there aren’t many women at the World Series of Poker, those who do have made a name for themselves in the industry.
Vanessa Selbst, Nani Dollison, and Barbara are among the popular professional women poker players who regularly attend the event. Each of these ladies has three World Series of Poker bracelets to her name. There’s also Kelly Minkin, who finished 29th in the Main Event in 2015. She was crowned ‘Last Woman Standing.’ Maria Ho was also the last woman standing at the 2007 World Series of Poker Championship Event. She finished 38th out of a total of 6,358 poker players in the event.
At the event, she won $237,865 in cash. In 2014, she repeated the feat, finishing 77th out of a total of 6,683 players. Maria finished 27th in the WSOP Europe Main Event as the ‘Last Woman Standing,’ and she finished 6th in the final table in 2017. This makes Maria Ho the only female player to hold the title of Last Woman Standing at both the WSOP and the WSOP Europe Main Events four times.
There’s also Barbara Enright, who was the only female to make it to the WSOP Final Table in 1995, finishing in fifth place. Enright finished in the money in the 2015 Main Event as well. She is the first woman to win two different WSOP Bracelets, the first woman to win the WSOP’s open event, and the first woman to win three bracelets.
Barbara Enright is a Poker League of Nation Ambassador and the first woman inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame, Senior Poker Hall of Fame, and Women in Poker Hall of Fame. Enright is unquestionably the only professional poker player to have been inducted into all three poker halls of fame.
World Series of Poker Circuit
The World Series of Poker Circuit, which began in 2005, is a satellite series that takes place at Harrah’s personal properties across the United States. The World Series of Poker Circuit, like the WSOP Las Vegas, offers $10,000 buy-in tournaments at each location. Furthermore, qualifying poker players are eligible for the titivated Tournament of Champions. The 2005 TOC included twenty qualifying players from each circuit event.
At the 2005 TOC, players from the Main Event’s final table and winners of nine or more WSOP bracelets competed in the redesigned TOC at Caesars Palace. Phil Hellmuth, Johnny Chan, and Doyle Brunson were among the professionals who took part in the event. Mike Matusow was the winner of the $1 million grand prize. All players who made it to the final table were guaranteed a minimum of $25,000 for the eighth and ninth place finishers. The Circuit event has grown over the years to include eleven additional properties where the events take place.
World Series of Poker Europe
The WSOPE is the first WSOP extension in the series’ history. The first World Series of Poker championship events, with complete bracelets, were held in Las Vegas in 2007. The inaugural WSOPE was comprised of three distinct events held in London from the 6th to the 17th of 2017. Annette Obrestad of Norway won the main event of the 10,000GBP no-limit hold’em WSOP tournament. She won the tournament just one day before turning 19 years old. Obrestad is now the youngest person to ever win a WSOP bracelet.
Interestingly, this record cannot be broken in WSOP Las Vegas under current laws because the legal gambling age in Nevada is 21. In the United Kingdom, however, the minimum legal age for casino gaming is eighteen. In 2011, the World Series of Poker Europe relocated from London to Cannes, France. The event was relocated to Enghien-les-Bains, a Paris suburb, in 2013. According to the report, the World Series of Poker Europe will now be held in odd-numbered years, while the World Series of Poker Asia Pacific will be held in even-numbered years.
World Series of Poker Africa
As it expands to Africa, it is clear that the World Series of Poker intends to touch all of the world’s continents. The tournament first took place in Gauteng, South Africa, in 2010. The 2010 World Series of Poker (WSOP) in South Africa was a stop on the World Series of Poker Circuit. The event’s winners, however, did not receive a gold ring or a place in the WSOP Circuit National Championship.
World Series of Poker Asia Pacific
In 2012, the World Series of Poker Asia Pacific was created by the World Series of Poker and Crown Melbourne, an Australian casino. The inaugural event was held at Crown Melbourne Casino. The event took place from April 4th to April 15th, 2013, and featured five bracelet tournament events in the series.
World Series of Poker International Circuit
The World Series of Poker International Circuit began in 2015, with tournaments held in Latin America, Canada, Europe, the Caribbean, Africa, and Asia Pacific. The winners of each tournament are added to the WSOP Circuit and are eligible to compete in the World Series of Poker Global Casino Championship. The International Circuit has expanded to thirteen tournaments for the 2017/2018 season.
Media Coverage for World Series of Poker
Over the years, the WSOP tournaments have received extensive media coverage, ranging from television to social media. Aside from the regular news about the tournaments and the players, the WSOP has also been featured in a few films and reality shows. The World Series of Poker has been featured in various television broadcasts since the 1970s. Famous WSOP poker players have also appeared in various television series, raising awareness for the event. The WSOP tournaments were broadcast on The Discovery Channels between 1999 and 2001, with game overviews and recaps of the events. Many media outlets have become involved in covering the tournaments as they unfold over the years.
Summing up
The World Series of Poker has grown into a massive annual event that draws poker fans from all over the world. Since its inception in 1970, the event has grown to become a global event that captures the attention of a large population all over the world. Many poker players have made a name for themselves in the WSOP, and they have also made a fortune playing at the event. To compete in the event, you must become a professional poker player with a wealth of experience and be prepared to face many of the world’s most renowned poker players.
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