The
World Series of Poker is the largest set of poker
tournaments in the world. It is held annually
in Las Vegas, lasting just over a month. A bracelet
is awarded to the winner of each of the fifty-plus
events which include all the major varieties of
poker. The series culminates with the $10,000
no-limit hold'em "Main Event", which
in recent years has attracted entry fields numbering
in the thousands, with the victor receiving a
multi-million dollar prize.
Origins
The
original World Series of Poker was started in
1968 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 in the top ten
of the World Series of Poker Main Event eight
times, a record that still stands as of 2007.
The set of tournaments that the World Series of
Poker (WSOP) would evolve into was the brainchild
of Las Vegas casino owner and poker player Benny
Binion, as well as his two sons Jack and Ted.
The
Binion family nurtured not only 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 were 45 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 returned in 2006. Also, S.H.O.E.
has been played in the past, and returned in 2007.
Other events played in the past include Chinese
poker, Five card stud, and many others. Each event
winner gets a coveted gold bracelet as well as
the grand prize money, which by tradition is paid
in cash brought in cardboard boxes.
Phil
Hellmuth has the most bracelets with eleven. Runners-up
Doyle Brunson and Johnny Chan have each won ten
bracelets. Doyle's son, Todd Brunson, won a bracelet
in a $2,500 Omaha Eight-or-better event in 2005,
making them the first and only father/son combo
to win at least one event at the WSOP. Also, celebrities
Patrick Bruel, Jan Vang Sørensen and Jennifer
Tilly have won WSOP bracelets in 1998, 2002 and
2005 respectively.
The
number of participants in the WSOP has grown almost
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,
the number of participants grew from 839 in 2003
to 8,773 in 2006. This was known as the "Moneymaker
Effect", named after unknown rookie Chris
Moneymaker, who won the main event after having
qualified for just $39 through a satellite tournament.
Much of this growth can also 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
an entry fee (a percentage between 6% and 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 among 560 players, with
$7.5 million to first prize.
Harrah's
Takes "The Pot"
In
2004, Harrah's Entertainment purchased Binion's
Horseshoe, kept the rights to the Horseshoe and
World Series of Poker brands, sold the hotel and
casino to MTR Gaming Group, 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. The final two days of the main event
in 2005 were held downtown at what is now the
MTR operated "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 (Johnny Chan, Doyle Brunson,
and Phil Hellmuth) 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
canceled after the Grand Casino Biloxi, which
was scheduled to host the event, suffered major
damage from Hurricane Katrina.
The
Rio also hosted the 2006 World Series of Poker,
which began on June 25 with satellite events and
formally began the day after with the annual Casino
Employee event, won in 2006 by Chris Gros. 2006
featured the "Tournament of Champions"
on June 25 and 26, won by Mike Sexton. Various
events led up to the main event, which was held
from July 28 until August 10. The first prize
of $12 million was awarded to Jamie Gold.
The
Marketing of the WSOP
Like
any event or sports league, the WSOP also has
corporate sponsors and licensed products which
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, United
States Playing Card's Bicycle Pro Cards, Bluff
magazine, GlaxoSmithKline/Bayer's Levitra erectile
dysfunction medicine, and The Hershey Company.
Licensees include Glu Mobile, 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 licenses bring
in more than a million dollars to Harrah's.
WSOP
television coverage
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 broadcast
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, or hole 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. For the first two
years of its existence, ESPN was broadcasting
one hour programs of the "circuit" events
that the WSOP has at various Harrah's-owned casinos,
but ESPN did not renew these events. 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 was 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.
In
2003, ESPN expanded their coverage to new heights
with their coverage of the WSOP. They included
coverage of the entire tournament, with a "Featured
Table". At this table, the viewers could
see the player's hole cards and subsequent strategy.
The action was also broadcast as if live, though
on tape-delay. This level of coverage arguably
led to the popularity boom of No-Limit Texas Hold
'Em.
Coverage
would increase in 2004 and 2005 to include preliminary
events from the WSOP, in addition to the "Main
Event".
ESPN
has expanded poker to all-new levels, especially
with their coverage of the 2006 WSOP, including
providing the entire final table of the 2006 Main
Event via pay-per-view airing.
WSOP
Broadcasters
2007
(ESPN) - Lon McEachern and Norman Chad; Phil Gordon
and Ali Nejad in Main Event Pay-per-view; (ESPN
Deportes/ESPN Latin America - Spanish) - Gabriela
Hill and Fernando Alvarez
The
Main Event
The
Main Event of the WSOP has been the $10,000 buy-in
no-limit Texas Hold 'Em (TXHE) 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 has traditionally been
given the unofficial title of World Champion.
However the game's top professionals have stated
that the recently-added $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 Hold
'em, Omaha, Razz, Seven Card Stud and Eight-or-better
are all played. The H.O.R.S.E. tournament was
won by Chip Reese in 2006 and Freddy Deeb in 2007.
It should be noted that the professionals played
a major role in convincing WSOP management to
stage an event with a much larger buy-in than
the Main Event; the growth of poker tournaments
and the World Series (by way of "The Moneymaker
Effect") had resulted in fields with a far
greater number of amateurs in proportion to professionals.
Hence, the Main Event now has a much greater likelihood
of producing winners who are amateurs and/or relatively
unknown players. The professionals sought to create
an event which was far more likely to produce
a more well-rounded poker professional as the
eventual winner. The $50,000 buy-in, being five
times larger than the buy-in for the Main Event,
has thus far tended to deter amateurs from playing
in the H.O.R.S.E. tournament.
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 (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.
Jerry
Yang, the winner in 2007, had only been playing
poker for two years prior to his victory. He won
his seat at a $225 satellite tournament at Pechanga
Resort & Casino.
All
players (including former champions, celebrities,
and professional poker players) must supply the
$10,000 buy-in in order to participate.
Player
of the Year
Since
2004, a Player of the Year Award has been given
to the player with the most points accumulated
throughout the World Series. Only "open"
events in which all players can participate count
in the standings. Beginning with the 2006 World
Series of Poker, the Main Event and the $50,000
H.O.R.S.E. competition had no effect on the outcome
of the winner of the Player of the Year award.
World
Series of Poker Europe
The
World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) is the first
expansion of the World Series of Poker. Since
1970, the event has occurred every year in Las
Vegas. In September 2007, the first WSOP championship
events outside of Las Vegas, complete with bracelets,
were held. The inaugural WSOPE consisted of three
events held in London from September 6-17, 2007.
The main event, a GBP 10,000 buy-in no-limit hold
'em tournament, was won by Norwegian online prodigy
Annette Obrestad on the day before her 19th birthday.
This made her the youngest person ever to win
a WSOP bracelet, a record that cannot be broken
in the Las Vegas WSOP under current laws because
the minimum legal age for casino gaming in Nevada
is 21. Obrestad could play in the WSOPE because
the minimum age for casino gaming in the United
Kingdom is 18.
While
no definitive plans have been announced, WSOP
Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack has indicated that
in the next one to three years that other venues
may start holding WSOP events.[citation needed]
Two locations that have been mentioned as possible
expansion sites are Egypt and South Africa.
Other
information
In
2005, a video game based on the tournament was
released for several consoles and the computer.
A sequel called World Series of Poker: Tournament
of Champions came out in 2006.
WSOP
video poker machines now appear at some Harrah's
casinos; the machines are standard video poker
machines, but have a bonus feature which allows
a player to play a modified game of Texas Hold
'em against the machine.
Beginning
in 2007, Harrah's announced the creation of the
World Series of Poker Academy, a poker school
aimed at providing poker players with the skills
needed to win a WSOP Bracelet. The instructors
for the Academy include Phil Hellmuth, Greg Raymer,
Scott Fischman and Mark Seif. Initial academies
were launched in Tunica, Indiana and Las Vegas.
(Credit: Wikipedia).
