WSOP - World Series Of Poker

WSOP World Series Of Poker

WSOP

The World Series Of Poker, WSOP, is the most prestigious land based poker tournament in the world. The WSOP is held annually in Las Vegas. The WSOP is actually a series of poker tournaments covering most poker variants, from No-Limit Texas Holdem, Seven Card Stud, Pot limit Omaha to mixed games such as Mixed Holdem Limit/No-Limit Texas Holdem and HORSE.

At the 2007 WSOP there were 55 tournaments, called events, ranging from Event 1 to Event 55. The winner of an Event wins a WSOP braclet, and many $100,000s if not $ Millions in prize money.

WSOP Logo There are two events within the WSOP that are seen as special by the poker playing public, the World Championship No-Limit Texas Holdem called the Main Event and World Championship HORSE.

The player with the most event wins, the most WSOP bracelets, is Phil Hellmuth with an incredible eleven. There are two players on ten bracelets, Doyle Brunson and Johnny Chan.

WSOP Main Event -World Championship No-Limit Texas Hold'em

The Main Event is seen as providing the years Wold Champion of Poker and is a $10,000 No-Limit Texas Holdem freezeout tournament. The prize to the winner has been over a million $US since 1991 with this reaching it's highest in 2006 when Jamie Gold won the 2007 WSOP Main Event for $12 Million.

Very few players have won the main event multiple times: Johnny Moss X4, Doyle Brunson X4, Stu Ungar X3 and Johnny Chan X2.

Jerry Yang won the WSOP 2007 Main Event taking home $8.25 Million.

HORSE - World Championship H.O.R.S.E

Most poker professionals see the $50,000 HORSE Event as being the most prestigious poker event to win. This is because in order to win the event the winner has to be highly proficient in a whole range of poker games; H.O.R.S.E (Holdem, Omaha High Low, Razz, Seven Card Stud, Seven Card Stud High Low Eight or Better).

The 2007 $50,000 World Championship H.O.R.S.E. event was won by Freddy Deep who took home over $2.27 Million in winnings.

WSOP TV and Online Poker

The reason the WSOP has become the most prestigious poker tournament is the coverage that it get s from the media, both off line from TV and newspapers, and online through online poker rooms and online poker portals. ESPN has been covering the WSOP for many years.

The number of players in the WSOP main event has grown massivly in recent years due to the influx of qualifiers from online poker rooms. The driving force behind this is the fact that in 2003 Chris Moneymaker won the WSOP Main Event having qualified from an online poker room, Pokerstars, through a $39 sattelite going on to take home $2.5 million in winnings.

This opened up the dream that anybody could win the WSOP Main Event creating a yearly online poker qualifying frenzy.

Growth in WSOP Main Event Player Numbers and Winnings:


Year	Winner	Winnings	Entered
2000	Chris Fergusan	$1.5 Million	512
2001	Juan Carlos Mortenbson	$1.5 Million	613
2002	Robert Varkonyi	$2 Million	631
2003	Chris Moneymaker	$2.5 Million	839
2004	Greg Raymer	$5 Million	2,576
2005	Joe Hachem	$7.5 Million	5,619
2006	Jamie Gold	$12 Million	8,773
2007	Jerry Yang	$8.25 Million	6,358

WSOP History

The first WSOP was held at Benny Binion's casino, Binion's Horshoe, in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA in 1970. The lead up to the first WSOP began in 1968 at a Casino in Reno, Nevada, USA with the idea of a set of poker tournaments being made into a World Series Of Poker being devised by Benny and his two sons Jack and Ted.

From 1970 until 2004 the WSOP was held at Binions's Horseshoe. In 2004 Harrah's Entertainment purchased Binion's Horseshoe and the rights to the WSOP. Because of this the WSOP moved to the RIO All-Suites Casino and Hotel where it has been held since 2005.

WSOP Europe (WSOPE)

WSOPE is due to take place in September 2007 at The Casino at The Empire, London. The WSOPE will effectively become Events 56, 57 and 58 of WSOP 2007.

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