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WSOP Main Event Winners
Date Name Winnings 1970 Johnny Moss Awarded by Players Vote 1971 Johnny Moss $30,000 1972 Amarillo Slim Preston $80,000 1973 Puggy Pearson $130,000 1974 Johnny Moss $160,000 1975 Sailor Roberts $210,000 1976 Doyle Brunson $220,000 1977 Doyle Brunson $340,000 1978 Bobby Baldwin $210,000 1979 Hal Fowler $270,000 1980 Stu Ungar $385,000 1981 Stu Ungar $375,000 1982 Jack Straus $520,000 1983 Tom McEvoy $580,000 1984 Jack Keller $660,000 1985 Bill Smith $700,000 1986 Berry Johnston $570,000 1987 Johnny Chan $625,000 1988 Johnny Chan $700,000 1989 Phil Helmuth Jr. $755,000 1990 Mansour Matloubi $895,000 1991 Brad Daugherty $1,000,000 1992 Hamid Dastmalchi $1,000,000 1993 Jim Betchel $1,000,000 1994 Russ Hamilton $1,000,000 1995 Dan Harrington $1,000,000 1996 Huck Seed $1,000,000 1997 Stu Ungar $1,000,000 1998 Scotty  Nguyen $1,000,000 1999 JJ ‘Noel’ Furlong $1,000,000 2000 Chris Ferguson $1,500,000 2001 Carlos Mortensen $1,500,000 2002 Robert Varkonyi $2,000,000 2003 Chris Moneymaker $2,500,000 2004 Greg Raymer $5,000,000 2005 Joe Hachem $7,500,000 2006 Jamie Gold $12,000,000 2007 Jerry Yany $8,250,000 2008 You $Lots

The WSOP 2008 Main Event is not being staged
until July and yet we've all been talking about ways
to qualify for this most prestigious of events for
ages. I’ve had a look into the history of this event
and come up with this brief précis of how it all came about.

Way back in 1969 Tom Moore and Vic Vickery jointly invited poker fans to attend the first and last Texas Gamblers Reunion where they played several high stakes games over a few days. The roll call went as follows; Jimmy ‘the Greek’ Snyder, Rudy ‘Minnesota Fats’ Wanderone, Benny Binion, Doyle Brunson, ‘Amarillo Slim’ Preston, Johnny Moss and Puggy Pearson (apologies to those I have excluded who did attend). This event is believed to be the one that was the beginning of what was to become the greatest poker tournament in the world WSOP.

In 1970, with less than 50 tables, Binions Horseshoe Casino, Las Vegas hosts the first contest with about 30 players squeezed into an alcove as Binions had no poker room. The owner, Benny Binion, is therefore credited with the founding of the World Series of Poker 38 years ago. The 1st WSOP attracted no publicity or public interest and the winner, Johnny Moss, was elected by his fellow players not by winning a final table.

Things changed in ’72, the charismatic, talkative Texan ‘Amarillo Slim’ Preston beat 12 entrants for the title. He celebrated publicly and was a brilliant ambassador for the game, bringing WSOP to the publics’ attention for the 1st time. ’73 brought the first televised event where Puggy Pearson was the winner.

1974 brought Johnny Moss the first of his three victories (a record jointly held with Stu Ungar), the now familiar Doyle ‘Dolly’ Brunson then won back to back.

The applecart was well and truly upset however in 1979, an amateur won the title! Hal Fowler upset the big boys then slipped back into obscurity never to be heard of again.

The ‘rules’ kept getting broken, in the early 80’s Stu ‘the Kid’ Ungar first made his mark, he was the first New Yorker to win the competition. In ’82 the Ladies Event was introduced along with the $10,000 buy in Main Event.

WSOP continued to grow in size and popularity and by ’87 had outgrown the Horseshoe Casino and players were being tabled out to other casinos along the Strip. Sadly on Christmas Day ’89 Benny Binion passed away and his son Jack took over the business. Jack brought in poker veterans Jim Albrecht and Jack McClelland who set about improving the tournament, a new decade and era for WSOP had begun.

1990 brought the 1st non-American winning the crown, Mansour Matloubi was an ex pat Iranian residing in England. In ’91 WSOP attracted 200 players for the 1st time (within 5 years the numbers would swell to 300), this was also the 1st year that $1m was up for grabs.

1997 brought great popularity which brought – growth problems – yet again, this year Stu Ungar joined Johnny Moss in having won 3 championships.

By the millennium it was said that WSOP had had its day and was all but finished. The public had lost interest and were more interested in the newer tournaments such as WPT and EPT which had come along. Then, in 2003, the charming Chris Moneymaker won the competition and $2.5m, the public’s interest was caught yet again, Chris’ win had given WSOP a much needed boost. With Moneymaker’s victory all of a sudden Poker Players gained glamour and celebrity status! The prize money doubled in 2004 and Greg Raymer took home a whopping $5m, big bucks.

By now the WSOP had well and truly outgrown Binion’s Horseshoe Casino and things were definitely moving up a notch, it was time for big changes. Harrah’s Entertainment acquired the rights to the competition and in 2005 the event was held in the huge Rio all Suite Hotel and Casino and thousands made their way to Las Vegas to be part of WSOP. 2006 brought $100m in prizes, 45 tournaments, gold bracelets for all the winners. Jamie Gould defeated 8,772 fellow players and won a staggering $12m.

In 2007 a staggering 54,288 players registered all with their sights set on the coveted 55 gold bracelets that were being offered. Jerry Yang took the main event and $8,250,000 at the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino. The Competition now stretched over 4 weeks (take a look at the WSOP schedule for more info).

What of this years WSOP? Well, it will be bigger and better than ever before. The big boys will be there, of course, but what makes this competition so special is that there will be players who got to Las Vegas for $1 or even a freeroll and they could be coming home with pockets full of cash and a gold bracelet on their wrists. So, go on, if you don’t play in another game this year have a go at a satellite to WSOP, our WSOP satellite, qualifiers and freeroll guide will give you a good idea of what’s on offer. Why not browse our in depth reviews for even more information.

Good luck, see you in Vegas!