WORLD SERIES OF POKER HISTORY

World Series of Poker officially started in 1970 by Benny Binion, owner of Binion's Horseshoe Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. Although 1970 was the first official tournament to determine the “World Champion,” the idea for the game actually came about 21 years earlier in 1949 when Nicloas “The Greek” Dandalos came to Las Vegas and approached Benny Binnion to set up a no-limit poker marathon so Nick could challenge the best poker players in the world. Benny Binnion agreed and arranged a publicly viewed match between Nick Dandalos and the best poker player of the time, Johnny Moss. 

The marathon match lasted five months with short sleep breaks, and they played every kind of poker known to man. Johnny Moss finally beat Nick “The Greek” and ended up winning over 2 million dollars.

21 years later Benny Binion decided to restage the game and invite some of the best poker players in the world to determine the “World Champion” and the World Series of Poker was born. Johnny Moss ended up wining the first tournament and the following year. First tournament had 7 players, followed by 13 the second year. Binion hoped that someday his tournament would grow to 50 players. The 1982 game had 52 players and the game started growing fast specially after the introduction of satellite competitions. 5 years later the tournament grew to over 2,000 players and the 2002 tournament attracted over 7,500 players.

The main event

The main event of the WSOP is the $10,000 buy-in no-limit Texas hold 'em tournament. Winners of the event not only get the largest prize of the tournament and golden bracelet, but additionally their picture is placed into the Gallery of Champions at Binion's Horseshoe.

There have been many memorable events during the WSOP, including Jack Straus's 1982 win which was a comeback after having discovered he had one $500 chip left when he thought he was out of the tournament.

A few players have won the WSOP multiple times, including Stu Ungar who won in 1980, 1981, and 1997. Ungar had a drug problem that spanned decades, which makes his 1997 win all the more amazing. Since Ungar had no money to enter the tournament in 1997 his friend and 6 time WSOP bracelet winner Billy Baxter gave him the entrance fee. Ungar split the $1,000,000 prize evenly with Baxter.

Johnny Chan won back to back in 1987 and 1988. Chan finished 2nd in 1989 to the youngest WSOP main event winner of all time Phil Hellmuth. The 1988 event would later be featured in the movie Rounders.

Chris Moneymaker won the main event in 2003 after qualifying through a $39 satellite tournament at the PokerStars (http://www.pokerstars.com) online cardroom. Four players at the final table of the 2004 main event qualified through PokerStars as well, including the winner, Greg "Fossilman" Raymer and second place finisher David Williams.

It may be that winning the WSOP makes legends out of people, but some living poker legends have tried unsuccessfully for years to win the main event, including: T. J. Cloutier, Erik Seidel, Barry Greenstein, Men "The Master" Nguyen, and Howard Lederer.

Champions

Most Titles at the World Series Johnny Moss (8) Doyle Brunson (8) Phil Hellmuth (7) Billy Baxter (6)   Most World Championships Johnny Moss (3) Stu Ungar (3) Doyle Brunson (2) Johnny Chan (2)   Most often placed (received money) Berry Johnston (40) Mike Sexton (36) T.J. Cloutier (35) Dewey Tomko (33)

Past winners and Word Champions of the main event:

Below are the past winners of the main event, together with brief information about each year's main event. 

2007 World Series of Poker