Feature

From Amarillo Slim to Moneymaker. The history of the greatest game on earth.

It’s without doubt the most famous poker tournament in the world. The winner of the World Series of Poker is crowned the world champion - and last year there was the small matter of $2 million for coming first!

So it’s great news that despite the recent chaos caused by closure and sale of Binion’s Horseshoe, the downtown Las Vegas home of the tournament, this year’s World Series will be the biggest yet.

The Series will run from April 24 to May 28 with a record number of entrants anticipated for the final showpiece 6-day $10,000 No Limit Hold’em event. The winner is expected to walk away with a cool $3 million!

This year the entire World Series of Poker will consist of 32 separate tournaments. In 2002 there were 25 tournaments, 7,595 entries and a total prize pool of $19, 599,230. This year will blow that away. It’s going to be huge!

So how did the World Series of Poker grow into the world’s premier poker event? Here’s the Big Slick guide to the history the tournament:

Although the first official World Series of Poker was held in 1970 the history of the event actually goes back to summer of 1949 when high roller Nicholas “Nick the Greek” Dandolos, then the most famous gambler in America, approached Benny Binion – founder of Binion’s Horseshoe Casino.

Dandalos had an unusual request – he wanted Binion to fix him up a high stakes heads-up poker game with the best player he could find. Binion agreed – as long as the game was played in public.

What followed was a five-month marathon between Dandolos and the legendary Johnny Moss. Breaking only for sleep the pair battled it out over the green felt playing every type of poker imaginable.

By the end of it Moss had won $2 million. Legend has it that after losing his last pot Dandolos congratulated his opponent by standing up, bowing and uttering the immortal words: “Mr Moss, I have to let you go,” before retiring upstairs to sleep and claim his place in poker history.

Binion had noted the large crowds that the biggest game in town was pulling in - as well as the priceless free publicity it generated - and decided that one day he would recreate the game with all of the world’s best players.

And that’s exactly what he did in 1970. Though less than ten players took part in the inaugural World Series of Poker the buy in was the same as today - $10,000.

Perhaps fittingly it was Johnny Moss that won that first battle of the giants – though his victory was democratic in that he was named the World Champion following a popular vote.

The following year the tournament switched to it’s current freeze-out format and as if to prove he’d won the first one fair and square Moss played his way to victory again to be crowned world champion for a second time in two years.

In 1972 Thomas “Amarillo Slim” Preston won the title and headed straight out onto the TV talk-show circuit introducing the tournament to millions.

Ever with an eye on publicity Binion himself kept media interest high by appearing in a landmark 1973 history program to feed the public’s fascination with rambling gambling high stakes poker players. The World Series has never looked back since.

The introduction of satellite tournaments in the early 1980s was the next major growth point, helping to swell numbers further by enabling more players to meet the $10,000 buy in.

While the continued participation of the best players in the world ensured press interest never waned. As well as Johnny Moss and Amarillo Slim many of poker’s other superstars including Doyle Brunson, Stu Ungar, Phil Hellmuth Jr, Johnny Chan and Scotty Nguyen have also won the $10,000 Texas Hold’em No Limit event.

But it’s the explosion in online poker in recent years that has sent the number of entrants and the size of the prize money rocketing skywards.

Millions of people now play poker online each day. Satellite tournaments are easier than ever to enter – and the chance of sitting down to battle it out with the best players in the world is just too big a draw to pass.

So it was fitting that last year’s winner was the aptly named Chris Moneymaker – an amateur player who won the $2 million after qualifying through an online satellite.

His victory made headlines around the world, convincing more amateur players to give it a go and ensuring that this year’s World Series of Poker will be the biggest yet.

Want a chance to follow in the footsteps of Chris Moneymaker and be crowned World Poker Champion? That’s lucky, as you can thanks to our satellite qualifiers where you can win a seat at the WSOP for as little as $1.10. Sound good? Read on…