World Series of Poker

The 2006 World Series of Poker $10,000 buy-in No-Limit Texas Hold’em Championship Event broke all sorts of records — the most impressive being the 8,773 players competing for the largest prize of all time: the 12 million dollar championship money, which was captured by Jamie Gold. In 2007, there were fewer online qualifiers due to the passing of the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act, and so there were only 6,358 entries in the big main event. Which is still quiet a field! Californian Jerry Yang outlasted them all and won $8.25 million.

The series has come a long way since the first game in 1970, when just a few seasoned pros gathered in Vegas to see who was the best of the best.

How did the World Series of Poker Come to Pass?

It all begins with three men, years before the first World Series of Poker, in 1949, when Nick “the Greek” Dandalos asked Lester “Benny” Binion, owner of the Horsehoe Casino in Downtown Las Vegas, to arrange the biggest poker game of all time. Binion knew just the guy to take on the Greek – Johnny Moss, who at the time was regarded as the best poker player in the world. With Binion’s promise to bankroll him, Johnny Moss agreed to the match, and sat down to play at a game that would go on for five long months. They played every type of poker for huge pots of hundreds of thousands of dollars until at last, the Greek decided he was beat and got up from the table saying, “Mr. Moss, I have to let you go.”

The epic battle between Moss and the Greek sparked an idea in Benny Binion’s head, and in 1970 he invited the best poker players he knew, including Johnny Moss, Doyle Brunson, Amarillo Slim Preston, Brian “Sailor” Roberts, Puggy Pearson, Crandall Addington, and Carl Cannon to play No-Limit Texas Hold’em against each other in front of a crowd. Instead of playing until one player had all the chips, the players voted on who was the best, and Johnny Moss was unanimously chosen.

In 1971 the World Series was a freeze-out, winner-take-all tournament, which Johnny Moss once again won. Over the following years, it evolved into a “shared purse” tournament, in which not only the first place winner, but several other top finishers won a share of the prize money. Registration was open to anyone who had the $10,000 bucks to put up, and enrollment grew, but it wasn’t until satellite tournaments for the event were started that the numbers really started growing. Now, instead of plopping down the whole 10K, players could win a 10K seat by winning their way through a field of players at a lower buy-in tournament.

Still, the number of players at the Main Event remained under a thousand until 2003. Then, Chris Moneymaker won the top prize.

In 2003, Chris Moneymaker won a seat to the World Series of Poker through a $40 satellite tournament at the online poker site, PokerStars. This (until then) unknown player had only played online before the day of the tournament, and battled his way through the 838 other players to win an incredible $2.5 million.

America’s imagination latched on to this Cinderella story of a man who turned $40 into millions. If he could do it, we thought, anyone could. The TV coverage of the WSOP and other poker shows grew as well, and more and more people could watch and fantasize about sitting down at the table and beating a poker pro and winning huge prizes. In 2004, registration for the $10,000 main event tripled, and 2,576 players battled for the $5 million first prize. Greg “Fossilman” Raymer, who also won his seat through an online satellite at PokerStars, captured the 2004 WSOP bracelet.

2004 was a landmark year for another reason, as it also marked the final year of the World Series of Poker as part of the Binion’s Horsehoe empire, when they sold ownership of the tournament to Harrah’s, which is hosted the 2005 event at their own casino, The Rio All-Suite, though the final of the main event took place at the Horseshoe.

The main event in 2005 had over 5,600 participants and boasted a $7.5 million first prize, which was captured by Australian Joseph Hachem.

In 2006, the field got even bigger, with 8,773 players competing for a $12 million first prize. Jamie Gold, a Los Angeles producer, took the chip lead on Day 4 of the event and never gave it back, dominating the field all the way to the WSOP bracelet.

Here’s who won the main event of the World Series of Poker, and how much they took home in prize money, from the first game in 1970 to the present day. Click on player’s names to learn more about them.

2008: Peter Eastgate $ 9,152,416

2007: Jerry Yang $8,250,000

2006: Jamie Gold $12,000,000

2005: Joseph Hachem $7,500,000

2004: Greg Raymer $5,000,000

2003: Chris Moneymaker $2,500,000

2002: Robert Varkonyi $2,000,000

2001: Carlos Mortensen $1,500,000

2000: Chris Ferguson $1,500,000

1999: J. J. “Noel” Furlong $1,000,000

1998: Scotty Nguyen $1,000,000

1997: Stu Ungar $1,000,000

1996: Huck Seed $1,000,000

1995: Dan Harrington $1,000,000

1994: Russ Hamilton $1,000,000

1993: Jim Bechtel $1,000,000

1992: Hamid Dastmalchi $1,000,000

1991: Brad Daugherty $1,000,000

1990: Mansour Matloubi $895,000

1989: Phil Hellmuth $755,000

1988: Johnny Chan $700,000

1987: Johnny Chan $625,000

1986: Berry Johnston $570,000

1985: Bill Smith $700,000

1984: Jack Keller $660,000

1983: Tom McEvoy $580,000

1982: Jack Strauss $520,000

1981: Stu Ungar $375,000

1980: Stu Ungar $385,000

1979: Hal Fowler $270,000

1978: Bobby Baldwin $210,000

1977: Doyle Brunson $340,000

1976: Doyle Brunson $220,000

1975: Sailor Roberts $210,000

1974: Johnny Moss $160,000

1973: Puggy Pearson $130,000

1972: Amarillo Slim Preston $80,000

1971: Johnny Moss $30,000

1970: Johnny Moss n/a