WSOP

The World Series of Poker, played in Las Vegas every year, is the world’s largest Poker tournament. In 2006, 8,773 players participated in the Main Event, which is decided by a game of No-Limit Texas Hold’em. The winner, Jamie Gold from California, received a price of $12,000,000, and may call himself world champion in poker. The last years, interests have hardly waned.

When the tournament started in 1970, however, only seven players participated. The winner was the now legendary Johnny Moss. The year after that, the game form changed to the freezeout, where the last remaining player became the champion. Again, Johnny Moss was the winner. This is the form the tournament has had since then.

The WSOP grew slowly over the years. In the early 2000’s something happened. Interest exploded, the number of participants grew from a few hundred to thousands. A number of factors contributed to this. One was the growth of online poker. The 2003 champion, Chris Moneymaker, qualified to the tournament through an online poker side, giving rise to what was called the “Moneymaker Effect”. Another reason was the increased TV coverage, of the Main Event and some side tournaments.

Also, the numbers of tournaments have grown. Originally, only what now is called the Main Event was played. In 2009, the WSOP consisted of 57 events. The winner of each event receives a gold bracelet. The record is held by Phil Hellmuth, who has won eleven bracelets. He is followed by Doyle Brunson and Johnny Chan, both who has won ten.