From Exampleproblems
The
World Series of Poker is the most prestigious set of
poker tournaments in the world.
Origins
The original World Series of Poker was started by Tom Morehead of the Riverside casino in Reno and was an invitational event. The set of tournaments the World Series of Poker (WSOP) would evolve to was the brainchild of Las Vegas legend, casino owner, and poker player Benny Binion as well as his two sons Jack and Ted.
The Binion family not only nurtured the WSOP, but poker in general. Prior to the 1970s, poker was not found at many casinos because of the difficulty of keeping cheaters out. Through better security techniques as well as the Binion's tireless promotion through events like the WSOP, poker became a very popular game.
In 1970 the first WSOP at Binion's Horseshoe took place with seven players. The winner, Johnny Moss was elected by his peers as the first World Champion of Poker and received a silver cup as a prize.
Evolution
From 1971 on, all WSOP events have been tournaments with cash prizes. In 1973 a new event, five-card stud, was added to the main event of No Limit Texas Hold 'em. Since then new events have been added and removed. In 2006 there will be 42 events at the WSOP, including poker games like Omaha and Razz as well as events only for seniors and women. Event winners get, in addition to their prize money, the coveted golden bracelet.
Doyle Brunson (nicknamed "Texas Dolly") and Johnny Chan have each won ten bracelets, while Phil Hellmuth has nine. Doyle's son, Todd Brunson, won a bracelet in a pot-limit Omaha event in 2005, making them the first father/son combo to win at least one event at the WSOP. Also, actress Jennifer Tilly became the first celebrity to win a WSOP event when she won the Women's No-Limit Texas Hold-'Em event in 2005.
The number of participants in the WSOP has grown every year, and in recent years the growth has exploded. In 2000 there were 4,780 entrants in the various events, but in 2005, the number rose to over 23,000 players. In the main event alone, participants grew from 839 in 2003, to 2,576 in 2004, to 5,619 in 2005. For the 2006 main event, a cap of 8,000 players has been established. Much of this growth can be attributed to the WSOP airing on ESPN and the World Poker Tour being shown on the Travel Channel, along with other USA television over-the-air and cable networks such as Fox Sports Net and their "Poker Superstars" series, Bravo with the "Celebrity Poker Showdown" series and GSN with their "Poker Royale" series, as well as the boom in online "poker rooms".
Like most tournaments, the sponsoring casino takes a rake from the buy-ins and distributes the rest, hence the prize money increases with more players. In the 2005 main event $52,818,610 (US) in prize money was distributed, including a $7.5 million first prize. Subtracting the $10,000 buy-ins, over $47 million was won by 560 players in the event. Carl Ygborn finished "on the bubble" (in 561st place), and Harrah's gave him a free entry into the 2006 Main Event.
Image:0716 event.jpg Winners on the circuit leading to the World Series of Poker not only win the cash prize, but this gold ring.
In 2004,
Harrah's Entertainment purchased Binion's Horseshoe, renaming it just "Binion's" and announced that the
2005 Series would be held at the Harrah's-owned Rio Casino, just off the Las Vegas strip, with the final two days of the main event held downtown at Binion's in celebration of the
centennial of the founding of Las Vegas. It also added a made-for-television $2 million "freeroll" invitational "
Tournament of Champions" (TOC) event won by
Annie Duke as a "winner-take-all" event. The 2005 contest, made up of those on the WSOP Circut that finished in the top twenty at circut events, the final table of the 2005 Main Event, along with Helmeuth, Chan and Doyle Brunson, all winners of nine or more bracelets in WSOP history, awarded $1 million (
US) to the champion and awarded cash prizes on a sliding scale down to $25,000 for both eighth and ninth place, was held at
Caesar's Palace. Starting in 2005, the WSOP began a tournament "circuit" at Harrah's-owned properties in the United States where in addition to a $10,000 buy-in tournament, qualifying players became eligible for a revamped Tournament of Champions. On
July 16 of 2005, during a recess in the main event's final table, it was announced that eleven Harrah's properties (including the recently added Bally's and Caesar's properties) will participate in the 2005-06 WSOP circuit that started in Tunica, Mississippi on
August 11, 2005. (One event, that was scheduled for
Biloxi, Mississippi was cancelled after the Grand Casino Biloxi, which was scheduled to host the event, suffered major damage from
Hurricane Katrina.) The Rio will host all WSOP major events again, begining on
June 25 with satellite events and formally start the next day with the annual Casino Employee tournament, and will feature the TOC on
June 28 and
29,
2006, along with the various events leading up to the main event, which will be held from
July 28 until
August 10. If the limit of 8,000 players paying $10K (US) (with the exception of Carl Ygborn who gets the free pass as it were) is reached, the first prize is estimated to be $10 million as well as a nice bracelet.
- For more information, see 2006 World Series of Poker.
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.
There have been many memorable events during the WSOP, including Jack Straus's 1982 comeback win after discovering 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 six-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 final hand of the 1988 event between Chan and Erik Seidel 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 online cardroom. Four players at the final table of the 2004 main event qualified through PokerStars as well, including the winner, Greg Raymer and second place finisher David Williams. In 2005, eventual champion Joseph Hachem entered the old fashioned way: with the $10,000 buy-in.
It may be that winning the WSOP makes legends out of people, but some living poker legends have tried unsuccessfully for years to win the main event, including: T. J. Cloutier (2000 and 1985 runner-up), Erik Seidel (1988 runner-up), Dave "Devilfish" Ulliott, Barry Greenstein, Men "The Master" Nguyen, and Howard Lederer.
Main Event Overview
These are the past winners of the main event, together with brief information about each year's main event:
| Year
| Winner
| Prize (US$)
| Runner-Up
| Notable Others
|
| 2005
| Image:Australia flag large.png Joseph Hachem 7♣ 3♠
| 7,500,000
| Image:Flag of the United States.svg Steve Dannenmann
|
|
| 2004
| Image:Flag of the United States.svg Greg "Fossilman" Raymer 8♠ 8♦
| 5,000,000
| Image:Flag of the United States.svg David Williams
|
|
| 2003
| Image:Flag of the United States.svg Chris Moneymaker 5♦ 4♠
| 2,500,000
| Image:Flag of the United States.svg Sam Farha
|
|
| 2002
| Image:Flag of the United States.svg Robert Varkonyi Q♦ T♠
| 2,000,000
| Image:England flag.svg Julian "The Kid" Gardner
|
|
| 2001
| Image:Spain flag large.png Juan Carlos "The Matador" Mortensen K♣ Q♣
| 1,500,000
| Image:Flag of the United States.svg Dewey Tomko
|
|
| 2000
| Image:Flag of the United States.svg Chris "Jesus" Ferguson A♠ 9♣
| 1,500,000
| Image:Flag of the United States.svg T. J. Cloutier
|
|
| 1999
| Image:Ireland flag large.png Noel Furlong 5♣ 5♦
| 1,000,000
| Image:Flag of the United States.svg Alan Goehring
|
|
| 1998
| Image:Flag of the United States.svg Scotty Nguyen J♦ 9♣
| 1,000,000
| Image:Flag of the United States.svg Kevin McBride
|
|
| 1997
| Image:Flag of the United States.svg Stu Ungar A♥ 4♣
| 1,000,000
| Image:Flag of the United States.svg John Strzemp
|
|
| 1996
| Image:Flag of the United States.svg Huck Seed 9♦ 8♦
| 1,000,000
| Image:Flag of the United States.svg Bruce Van Horn
|
|
| 1995
| Image:Flag of the United States.svg Dan Harrington 9♦ 8♦
| 1,000,000
| Image:Canada flag large.png Howard Goldfarb
|
|
| 1994
| Image:Flag of the United States.svg Russ Hamilton K♠ 8♥
| 1,000,000
| Image:Flag of the United States.svg Hugh Vincent
|
|
| 1993
| Image:Flag of the United States.svg Jim Bechtel J♣ 6♥
| 1,000,000
| Image:Flag of the United States.svg Glenn Cozen
|
|
| 1992
| Image:Flag of the United States.svg Hamid Dastmalchi 8♥ 4♣
| 1,000,000
| Image:Flag of the United States.svg Tom Jacobs
|
|
| 1991
| Image:Flag of the United States.svg Brad Daugherty K♠ J♠
| 1,000,000
| Image:Flag of the United States.svg Don Holt
|
|
| 1990
| Image:Wales flag large.png Mansour Matloubi T♦ T♣
| 895,000
| Image:Flag of the United States.svg Hans "Tuna" Lund
|
|
| 1989
| Image:Flag of the United States.svg Phil Hellmuth, Jr. 9♠ 9♣
| 755,000
| Image:Flag of the United States.svg Johnny "Oriental Express" Chan
|
|
| 1988
| Image:Flag of the United States.svg Johnny "Oriental Express" Chan J♣ 9♣
| 700,000
| Image:Flag of the United States.svg Erik Seidel
|
|
| 1987
| Image:Flag of the United States.svg Johnny "Oriental Express" Chan A♠ 9♣
| 625,000
| Image:Flag of the United States.svg Frank Henderson
|
|
| 1986
| Image:Flag of the United States.svg Berry Johnston
| 570,000
| Image:Flag of the United States.svg Mike Harthcock
|
|
| 1985
| Image:Flag of the United States.svg Bill Smith 3♠ 3♥
| 700,000
| Image:Flag of the United States.svg T. J. Cloutier
|
|
| 1984
| Image:Flag of the United States.svg Jack Keller
| 660,000
| Image:Flag of the United States.svg Byron "Cowboy" Wolford
|
|
| 1983
| Image:Flag of the United States.svg Tom McEvoy Q♦ Q♠
| 580,000
| Image:Flag of the United States.svg Rod Peate
|
|
| 1982
| Image:Flag of the United States.svg Jack "Treetop" Straus A♥ T♠
| 520,000
| Image:Flag of the United States.svg Dewey Tomko
|
|
| 1981
| Image:Flag of the United States.svg Stu Ungar A♥ Q♥
| 375,000
| Image:Flag of the United States.svg Perry Green
|
|
| 1980
| Image:Flag of the United States.svg Stu Ungar 5♠ 4♠
| 385,000
| Image:Flag of the United States.svg Doyle "Texas Dolly" Brunson
|
|
| 1979
| Image:Flag of the United States.svg Hal Fowler 7♠ 6♦
| 270,000
| Image:Flag of the United States.svg Bobby Hoff
|
|
| 1978
| Image:Flag of the United States.svg Bobby Baldwin
| 210,000
| Image:Flag of the United States.svg Crandall Addington
|
|
| 1977
| Image:Flag of the United States.svg Doyle "Texas Dolly" Brunson T♠ 2♥
| 340,000
| Image:Flag of the United States.svg Gary Berland
|
| 1976
| Image:Flag of the United States.svg Doyle "Texas Dolly" Brunson T♠ 2♠
| 220,000
| Image:Flag of the United States.svg Jesse Alto
|
| 1975
| Image:Flag of the United States.svg Brian "Sailor" Roberts 9♠ 9♥
| 210,000
| Image:Flag of the United States.svg Bob Hooks
|
| 1974
| Image:Flag of the United States.svg Johnny Moss
| 160,000
| Image:Flag of the United States.svg Crandall Addington
|
| 1973
| Image:Flag of the United States.svg Walter "Puggy" Pearson A♠ 7♠
| 130,000
| Image:Flag of the United States.svg Johnny Moss
|
| 1972
| Image:Flag of the United States.svg "Amarillo Slim" Preston
| 80,000
| Image:Flag of the United States.svg Johnny Moss
|
| 1971
| Image:Flag of the United States.svg Johnny Moss
| 30,000
| Image:Flag of the United States.svg Walter "Puggy" Pearson
|
| 1970
| Image:Flag of the United States.svg Johnny Moss*
| n/a
| n/a
|
* awarded by vote
External links
Template:Major Poker Tournaments
