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World Series of Poker

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File:05 WSOP logo edited.jpg
The WSOP logo.

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 in 1969 by Tom Moore of San Antonio, Texas at the Holiday Hotel and Casino in Reno and was an invitational event. This inaugural event was won by Crandell Addington who went on to place eight times in the top ten of the World Series of Poker Main Event. This is a record that still stands in 2006, and likely will never be broken. 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.

Johnny Moss, Becky Binion, and Puggy Pearson at the 1974 World Series of Poker

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 as a series of cash games that included five card stud, deuce to seven low-ball draw, razz, seven card stud, and Texas Hold-em. The format for the Main Event as a freeze-out Texas Hold-em game came the next year. The winner in 1970, 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, covering the majority of poker variants. Currently, Texas Hold 'Em, Omaha hold 'em and Seven-card stud and their lowball variants (if any) are played. H.O.R.S.E has been played in the past and is returning in 2006. Also, S.H.O.E (Seven Card Stud, Texas Hold'em, Omaha High/Low, and Seven Card Stud Eight or Better) has been played in the past along with Chinese poker, Five card stud and many others. Event winners get a coveted gold bracelet, in addition to their prize money.

Doyle "Texas Dolly" Brunson, Johnny "Oriental Express" Chan, and Phil Hellmuth have each won ten bracelets. Doyle's son, Todd Brunson, won a bracelet in a pot limit Omaha event in 2005, making them the first and only father/son combo to win at least one event at the WSOP. (See also World Series of Poker multiple bracelet winners.) Also, celebrities Patrick Bruel, Jan Sørensen and Jennifer Tilly have won WSOP bracelets in 1998, 2002 and 2005 respectively.

File:2002WSOP.jpg
The 2002 World Series of Poker in progress

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 there are accommodations for at least 9,000 players.[1] 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 televised series, as well as the boom of online poker.

Like most tournaments, the sponsoring casino takes a "rake" (a percentage between 6%-10%, depending on the buy-in) 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.

Harrah's Takes The Pot

In 2004, Harrah's Entertainment purchased Binion's Horseshoe, renaming it just "Binion's" and announced that the 2005 Series events would be held at the Harrah's-owned Rio Hotel and Casino, located 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 first won by Annie Duke as a "winner-take-all" event.

Starting in 2005, the WSOP began a tournament "circuit" at Harrah's-owned properties in the United States where in addition to the $10,000 buy-in tournament at each site, qualifying players became eligible for a revamped Tournament of Champions. The 2005 TOC, made up of the top twenty qualifying players at each circuit event, along with the final table from the 2005 Main Event and the winners of nine or more bracelets (Hellmuth, Chan and Doyle Brunson) would participate in the revamped TOC at Caesar's Palace. Mike "The Mouth" Matusow won the first prize of $1 million (US), and all the players at the final table were guaranteed a minimum of $25,000 for the eighth and ninth place finishers. During a break in the final table of the 2005 Main Event on July 16, Harrah's announced that eleven properties — including the recently added Bally's and Caesar's properties — would host 2005-06 WSOP Circuit events that started on August 11 in Tunica, Mississippi. 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 is currently hosting the 2006 World Series of Poker, which began on June 25 beginning with satellite events and formally began the day after with the annual Casino Employee event, won this year by Chris Gros. This year featured the "Tournament of Champions" on June 28 and 29, 2006, won by Mike Sexton. Various events lead up to the main event, which will be held from July 28 until August 10. The first prize will be $12 million as well as a special bracelet different from the others.

For more information, see 2006 World Series of Poker.

The Marketing of the WSOP

Like any event or sports league, the WSOP also has corporate sponsors and licensed products, which like any leagues or events, pay fees to market themselves as an official sponsor and/or licensee and exclusively use the WSOP insignia and cross-promote with their events. Besides the Harrah's properties and ESPN, major sponsors have included Miller Brewing's "Milwaukee's Best" brand of beers, Pepsi's SoBe Adrenaline Rush energy drink (sponsors of the 2005 TOC), Helene Curtis' Degree brand of anti-perspirant/deodorant, Card Player magazine, and GlaxoSmithKline/Bayer's Levitra erectile dysfunction medicine are all official corporate sponsors. Licensees include Activision (video games for different platforms such as Nintendo's GameCube, Microsoft's Xbox, Sony's PlayStation 2 and PC featuring computer generated versions of stars like Ferguson among others), and products made by different companies ranging from chip sets, playing cards, hand held games and clothing like caps and shirts. The fees and licences bring in over a million dollars to Harrah's.

Film coverage of the WSOP

The earliest filming of the World Series was a special produced by Binion's Horseshoe in 1973 and narrated by Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder. CBS began covering the World Series in the late 1970s. In the early 1980s, the event was again filmed as specials. In the late 1980s, the World Series returned to television as ESPN took over broadcasting. Initially, coverage consisted of just a single one hour taped delay broadcast of the main event. ESPN Classic currently airs many of the old broadcasts, especially from the mid 1990s and beyond. The most striking thing about the early coverage is how little was actually shown, since no "pocket cam" existed. Generally, ESPN used poker playing actors such as Dick Van Patten, Vince Van Patten and Gabe Kaplan with either the tournament director (usually Jim Albrecht) or a poker pro like Phil Hellmuth joining the team. Early coverage was relatively primitive compared to what ESPN does now, with no pre-taped interviews or profiles on the players. The commentators were actually on the casino floor itself. The 2002 WSOP was the first with the "sneak peek" (later called the pocket cam). 2003 was the first year that the broadcast covered action preceding the final table.

Since then, ESPN has greatly expanded its coverage to include many of the preliminary events of the WSOP, especially Texas Hold 'Em. Also, their coverage of the main event now typically includes at least one hour program on each day. Since 2005, ESPN has been broadcasting one hour programs of the "circuit" events that the WSOP has at various Harrah's-owned casinos. Additionally, ESPN's coverage now includes many of the trappings of sports coverage, such as lighter segments (called "The Nuts") and interviews.

ESPN's coverage has been largely driven by Matt Maranz, Executive Producer for the WSOP telecasts. Maranz leads 441 Productions, which produces the telecast under contract to ESPN's unit ESPN Original Entertainment (EOE). Maranz has significant sports production experience, having previously worked on ESPN's football pre-game show, and has also produced taped segments for NBC's Olympic coverage.

In 2000 and 2001, the World Series of Poker was broadcast by The Discovery Channel. These hour long programs presented more of an overview or recap of the WSOP as opposed to broadcasting an actual live event with play-by-play analysis and color commentary. The Discovery Channel's broadcast also featured final table players interviews interlaced throughout the show. ESPN would resume coverage the following year.

ESPN's coverage in 2002 would be typical of their coverage in the 1990s (recorded in video, little or no post-production commentary or player profiles, no card cams). However, the final table broadcast was expanded over two one-hour episodes.

ESPN has expanded poker to all-new levels, especially with their coverage of the 2006 WSOP. It was announced that poker fans would be able to view the entire final table of the 2006 Main Event via pay-per-view airing on Thursday, August 10th at 5 p.m. ET. This will cost $24.95 per order. Nonetheless, this is a huge indicator of the popularity "boom" of poker in the United States.

WSOP broadcasters

The main event

The main event of the WSOP is the $10,000 buy-in no-limit Texas Hold 'Em tournament since 1972. (In 1971, the buy-in was $5,000.) Winners of the event not only get the largest prize of the tournament and a gold bracelet, but additionally their picture is placed into the Gallery of Champions at Binion's.

The winner of the Main Event is also given the unofficial title of World Champion, however the game's top professionals - who consider the Main Event a crapshoot due to its sheer size - have stated that the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E event is the one which ultimately decides the world's best player. H.O.R.S.E is an event in which Holdem, Omaha, Razz, Seven Card Stud and Eight-or-better are all played. The 2006 H.O.R.S.E tournament was won by Chip Reese.

The Gallery of Champions in 1979

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

Four players have won the main event multiple times: Johnny Moss (1970, 1971 and 1974), Doyle Brunson (1976 and 1977), Stu Ungar (1980, 1981 and 1997) and Johnny Chan (1987 and 1988.)

The end of the 1988 main event was featured in the movie Rounders.

Chris Moneymaker and Greg Raymer, the winners in 2003 and 2004 both qualified for the main event through satellite tournaments at the PokerStars online cardroom.

Several living poker legends have tried unsuccessfully for years to win the main event, including T. J. Cloutier, the 1985 and 2000 runner-up.

With the exception of winners of the World Series Of Poker Main Event satellite tournaments (who automatically win a spot in the main event), all remaining players (including former champions, celebrities, and professional poker players) must supply the $10,000 buy-in, in order to participate.

Main Event Overview

Below are the past winners of the main event, together with brief information about each year's main event. For more information, view the article on the WSOP for that specific year.

Year Winner / Winning Hand Prize (US$) Entrants Runner-Up / Losing Hand
2006 To be decided August 10, 2006 12,000,000 8,773
2005 Joe Hachem 7♣ 3♠ 7,500,000 5,619 Steve Dannenmann A♦ 3♣
2004 Greg Raymer 8♠ 8♦ 5,000,000 2,576 David Williams A♥ 4♠
2003 Chris Moneymaker 5♦ 4♠ 2,500,000 839 Sam Farha J♥ 10♦
2002 Robert Varkonyi Q♦ 10♠ 2,000,000 631 Julian Gardner J♣ 8♣
2001 Juan Carlos Mortensen K♣ Q♣ 1,500,000 613 Dewey Tomko A♠ A♥
2000 Chris Ferguson A♠ 9♣ 1,500,000 512 T. J. Cloutier A♦ Q♣
1999 Noel Furlong 5♣ 5♦ 1,000,000 393 Alan Goehring 6♥ 6♣
1998 Scotty Nguyen J♦ 9♣ 1,000,000 350 Kevin McBride Q♥ 10♥
1997 Stu Ungar A♥ 4♣ 1,000,000 312 John Strzemp A♠ 8♣
1996 Huck Seed 9♦ 8♦ 1,000,000 295 Bruce Van Horn K♣ 8♣
1995 Dan Harrington 9♦ 8♦ 1,000,000 273 Howard Goldfarb A♥ 7♣
1994 Russ Hamilton K♠ 8♥ 1,000,000 268 Hugh Vincent 8♣ 5♥
1993 Jim Bechtel J♣ 6♥ 1,000,000 220 Glenn Cozen 7♠ 4♦
1992 Hamid Dastmalchi 8♥ 4♣ 1,000,000 201 Tom Jacobs J♦ 7♠
1991 Brad Daugherty K♠ J♠ 1,000,000 215 Don Holt 7♥ 3♥
1990 Mansour Matloubi 6♠ 6♥ 895,000 194 Hans Lund 4♦ 4♣
1989 Phil Hellmuth Jr 9♠ 9♣ 755,000 178 Johnny Chan A♠ 7♠
1988 Johnny Chan J♣ 9♣ 700,000 167 Erik Seidel Q♣ 7♥
1987 Johnny Chan A♠ 9♣ 625,000 152 Frank Henderson 4♦ 4♣
1986 Berry Johnston A♠ 10♥ 570,000 141 Mike Harthcock A♦ 8♦
1985 Bill Smith 3♠ 3♥ 700,000 140 T. J. Cloutier A♦ 3♣
1984 Jack Keller 10♥ 10♠ 660,000 132 Byron Wolford 6♥ 4♥
1983 Tom McEvoy Q♦ Q♠ 540,000 108 Rod Peate K♦ J♦
1982 Jack Straus A♥ 10♠ 520,000 104 Dewey Tomko A♦ 4♦
1981 Stu Ungar A♥ Q♥ 375,000 75 Perry Green 10♠ 9♦
1980 Stu Ungar 5♠ 4♠ 365,000 73 Doyle Brunson A♥ 7♠
1979 Hal Fowler 7♠ 6♦ 270,000 54 Bobby Hoff A♣ A♥
1978 Bobby Baldwin Q♦ Q♣ 210,000 42 Crandall Addington 9♦ 9♣
1977 Doyle Brunson 10♠ 2♥ 340,000 34 Gary Berland 8♥ 5♣
1976 Doyle Brunson 10♠ 2♠ 220,000 22 Jesse Alto A♠ J♦
1975 Brian "Sailor" Roberts 9♠ 9♥ 210,000 21 Bob Hooks A♣ K♦
1974 Johnny Moss 160,000 16 Crandall Addington
1973 Walter "Puggy" Pearson A♠ 7♠ 130,000 13 Johnny Moss K♥ J♠
1972 Thomas "Amarillo Slim" Preston 80,000 8 Walter "Puggy" Pearson
1971 Johnny Moss 30,000 6 Walter "Puggy" Pearson
1970 Johnny Moss * n/a 7 n/a

* awarded by vote

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