World Series of Poker

The World Series of Poker consists of a series of poker events that culminate with a winner being crowned annually in the United States. The main event is a Texas hold’em game, and its winner is considered the poker world champion. The roots of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) championship date back to 1949 with matches between Johnny Moss, a leading player on the Texas poker circuit, and the leading card personality of the time, Nick (“the Greek”) Dandolos, with different card games being arranged by gambler and casino promoter Benny Binion at his Horseshoe casino in Las Vegas. The title of WSOP champion, however, was not awarded until 1970, when Moss emerged victorious from a field of six players who each had paid a $5,000 entry fee. Two years later the fee was increased to $10,000, and it was agreed that play would continue until all players had gone “all in” and only one player remained at the table.

The tournament grew slowly through the 1970s and ’80s, and it split in several ways—with separate contests for the surviving player in seven-card stud, Omaha, high-low stud, and Texas hold’em games and later with special restricted tournaments for seniors and for women. The winner of each event receives an engraved gold bracelet in addition to the prize money. The Texas hold’em game is the most prestigious. Winnings and the number of entrants have increased substantially as poker tournaments have been featured on television, which accompanied the development of the hole-card camera (a device that allowed the television audience to see a player’s hidden cards). These factors—along with the introduction and expansion of Internet poker and the rise of amateur player Chris Moneymaker, who won the tournament in 2003—have driven thousands of amateur players to the tournament, and the WSOP has surged in popularity during the first decades of the 21st century.