The History of the World Series of Poker (WSOP)
No single event has shaped competitive poker more than the World Series of Poker. What began as a small, invite-only gathering in a Las Vegas casino has grown into a global multi-month festival awarding hundreds of bracelets across dozens of games and stake levels. Here's how it happened.
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1970: A Casino Owner's Invitation
Texas casino owner Benny Binion invited a handful of the country's best-known poker professionals to his Binion's Horseshoe casino in downtown Las Vegas for what would become the first World Series of Poker. It wasn't structured as a tournament - the small group played a series of cash games across different poker variants, and afterward, the players themselves voted on who had played the best. Johnny Moss was named the first champion.
1971: The Tournament Format Arrives
The following year, the WSOP adopted the freezeout tournament format that defines it today: a fixed buy-in, elimination as players run out of chips, and a single champion left standing. This format - rather than a vote among peers - has determined every WSOP Main Event champion since.
1970s-1980s: Slow, Steady Growth
Through the 1970s, the WSOP remained a relatively small, insider event. That began changing in the late 1970s and through the 1980s with the introduction of satellite tournaments - smaller, cheaper buy-in events that award a seat in the Main Event as the prize, opening the door for players without a full buy-in to reach poker's biggest stage. This era also produced some of the game's first true legends: Doyle Brunson, Stu Ungar, and Johnny Chan all won Main Event titles during this period, and their rivalries and personalities helped build the WSOP's mystique well beyond the poker-playing public.
1990s: Building Toward the Boom
The WSOP continued growing steadily through the 1990s, aided by improving television coverage. The introduction of the hole-card camera - letting broadcast audiences see players' hidden cards - transformed poker into something genuinely watchable for non-players, setting the stage for the explosion still to come.
2003: The Moneymaker Effect
Everything changed with the 2003 Main Event. Amateur player Chris Moneymaker won his seat through an $86 online satellite tournament (widely and popularly remembered as a $39 buy-in), then defeated a field of 839 entrants to win $2.5 million and the world championship. Televised on ESPN, his win convinced an enormous new audience that ordinary players could compete with - and beat - the professionals. See our dedicated Moneymaker Effect guide for the full story.
The impact showed up immediately in the numbers: the 2004 Main Event tripled the previous year's field, crossing 1,000 entrants for the first time. Growth continued for years, culminating in 2006's field of 8,773 entrants - still one of the largest in Main Event history.
2006-2011: UIGEA and Black Friday
The 2006 passage of the UIGEA (Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act) complicated online poker's US payment processing, and the 2011 "Black Friday" domain seizures hit the WSOP's online qualifying pipeline hard, since major satellite-feeding sites were directly affected. The Main Event itself continued uninterrupted, but the online-to-live pathway that had fueled years of growth was disrupted for years afterward.
2004-Present: New Ownership, New Era
In 2004, Harrah's Entertainment (now Caesars Entertainment) purchased Binion's Horseshoe and acquired the rights to the WSOP and Horseshoe brands, moving the tournament to the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino for many years before later shifting venues again as the event continued to grow. The WSOP has since expanded well beyond the Main Event into dozens of bracelet events across countless game variants and stake levels each summer, alongside WSOP Circuit stops held throughout the year at venues across the country, and a fully developed online arm (WSOP.com and partnerships including GGPoker) that lets players around the world compete for bracelets and Circuit rings without traveling to Las Vegas at all.
Records That Define the WSOP
Most bracelets
Phil Hellmuth, with 17 - the most in WSOP history
Most WSOP career earnings
Daniel Negreanu, with more than $36.4 million
Most WSOP Circuit rings
Maurice Hawkins, with 26
Largest Main Event field
8,773 entrants in 2006
Why the WSOP Still Matters
More than fifty years after that first small invitational, the WSOP remains the sport's defining measure of achievement - a bracelet is still poker's ultimate individual accolade, and the Main Event champion is still recognized as the game's world champion, however many other formats and tours have grown up around it since.
Frequently Asked Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
Who won the first WSOP?
Johnny Moss, voted champion by fellow competitors after a series of cash games in 1970 - the tournament format began the following year.
Who has won the most WSOP bracelets?
Phil Hellmuth, with 17 - the all-time record.
Who has the most WSOP career earnings?
Daniel Negreanu, with more than $36.4 million.
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