World Poker Championships, what was it like?

Just recently, the 52nd edition of the World Series of Poker was summed up.  The last 17 took place within the walls of the Rio Casino. At the end of that series it was reported that the 53rd edition of the 2022 series will be held at 2 gaming venues in Las Vegas – Paris and Bally’s. But now an entire era of a major event in poker history is passing away.

Of course, this comes with new developments and many interesting questions arise. First and foremost what to expect in the future. But there’s already a past and there’s been a lot of interesting stuff in it, so it’s worth giving it some attention.

How did it all start?

The WSOP currently has the status of the unofficial World Championship of Poker, but this was not achieved immediately. Initially it was the initiative of some amateurs.

And there are actually a couple of versions about it, and one complements the other. According to the sources, the private cash games of 1969, created by the Reunion of Texas Players, should be considered as the conditional standard of modern WSOP. The community was organised by Tom Moore, who owns the Holiday Casino in Reno. He provided a place to play and invited really worthy players.

And this generated interest, with other casino owners, especially Benny Binion, who had a criminal record, being the first to take an interest.  There were several days of high-stakes games in various directions of poker. On the whole, the session went very well, but Tom was not impressed and decided not to hold it as he said there was no prospect. As for Benny, however, he latched on tightly to the idea and started organising tournaments.

How did poker become popular?

Benny’s own casino, called Binion’s Horseshoe, became the first tournament destination. The first series involved 7 players at high-stakes cash tables. It wasn’t that big of a draw, as the casino simply didn’t have large halls.

But as for the competitors themselves, for them the event was a celebration, the game exciting and a completely different emotion.  And it was decided by a vote that the winner of the first tournament was Johnny Moss, and as a prize the player received a silver cube. A little later there were gold bracelets.

As Benny was a great entrepreneur in his own right and after looking at the situation from the outside, he decided to make some changes.  As early as 1971 a freesailer tournament was launched which acted as a prototype for the modern WSOP. There were six poker players, and once again, Johnny was the winner. Back then, the buy-in was $5,000.

A year later, the amount was increased and at the final 3-max table there were the real legends of the game. And given that there was no publicity yet, rumours spread very quickly.

And thanks to the fact that one of the participants answered all the questions about the event, a lot of publicity was given to the tournament. And it multiplied the popularity. So now there are numerous interviews and even film shoots. So the event was widely covered from different sides and there was more and more interest to the WSOP. The fourth series was already being broadcasted and the prize money went up to $130,000.

And this gave a boost to the poker tournament and now it is an event that is familiar to many people around the world and it attracts many TV viewers, amateurs, and even professional players.