The World Series of Poker

The World Series of Poker (WSOP) has a long and rather colourful history, dating back to 1970 when the larger than life character of Benny Binion saw the potential for an annual World Series of Poker tournament. The WSOP tournament has experienced extreme highs and some disappointing lows, luckily for the owners since 2004, Harrah’s Entertainment the World Series of Poker is now back on top and is once again taking the world by storm.

The World Series of Poker tournament started its extraordinary history in Benny Binion’s iconic Horseshoe in Las Vegas, the neon lit horseshoe sign became synonymous with gambling and is without doubt a fitting birth place for such an important event in the gambling calendar.

From its earliest days in the seventies, when legendary names such as Amarillo Slim, Johnny Moss and Puggy Pearson took their place around a couple of poker tables and eventual place in the WSOP history books, the competition has continued to grow to the mammoth proportions of today, some 50 bracelets are now available to be won. The big WSOP tournament has many charismatic winners in its more recent history too including the 1998 winner Scotty Nguyen and 2003 winner Chris Moneymaker.

The WSOP keeps on growing, so much so that there is now a World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) tournament and new records have been broken too, Annette Obrestad won the 2007 WSOPE main event at aged 18 – a record that cannot be replicated in Las Vegas due to the difference in minimum age limits, 21 in Nevada as opposed to 18 in the UK.

The World Series of Poker is played out in a series of satellites leading up to the main event a no limit Texas Hold ‘em game with a buy in of $10,000. The satellites take place in various locations and dates and range from no limit Hold’em’s to pot limit Omaha games.