A Tournament is Born - The History of WSOP
By John Phillip Vegas

"Mr. Moss, I have to let you go."
These now famous words were uttered by an exhausted Nicholas "Nick the Greek" Dandolos at the completion of what can only be called the precursor to what has grown to become the biggest annual event in all of card playing: the World Series of Poker.

Although the poker craze may seem like it arrived only a few short years ago, it actually traces its roots back nearly 60 years to 1949 when Dandolos approached gaming pioneer Benny Binion with an unusual request: he wanted to challenge poker's best player in a high-stakes marathon. The result was a very public, very intense battle between Dandolos and the legendary Johnny Moss that lasted for an unprecedented five months. Breaking for only enough time to sleep, the two combatants played just about every form of poker imaginable until the title-and an estimated $2 million in winnings-was claimed by Moss. Upon losing that fateful last hand, the defeated Greek reportedly rose from his seat, gave a slight bow in deference to the champion, and promptly went upstairs to bed.

Given the popularity of the match-throngs of onlookers stopped by daily and watched the competition in awe-it's hardly surprising that ol' Benny Binion found inspiration in the scene, a seed of an idea being planted that would someday grow to become poker's premier event. And so it was that in 1970, the first anointed "World Series of Poker" was held at Binion's Horseshoe. Although the rules for the fledgling event were different from the today's WSOP-the winner, Johnny Moss, being determined through vote-by its second year it shifted to the basic structure we know today; the winner being the player with all the chips. Again, Moss proved his poker prowess winning this event (and the $30,000 prize) in 1971. Subsequent years found winners with names like Amarillo Slim and Puggy Pearson cashing in, followed again by Moss then Sailor Roberts and eventually the godfather of poker, Doyle Brunson. By the time poker savant Stu Ungar took his first title in 1980, the event was firmly entrenched in the minds of professional players and the top prize had risen to a nearly $400,000.

It was during the 1980s that the popularity of the WSOP began to soar beyond the usual poker circles, thanks to a combination of growing poker mania, and low cost satellites. In 1982, the WSOP seated only 52 players, but within five years that figure jumped to include over 2,000 entries into the various events. With the advent of online poker rooms in the 90s, coupled with televised events inspiring more players to join the fray, poker and the WSOP has continued to set new records each subsequent year. A total of 7,595 entries were paid in 2002, and 13,036 in 2004-2,575 of which applied to main event alone. And given 2005's record breaking attendance-5,619 players entering the main event-it's likely that 2006 will post even high numbers still.

Exactly when the poker craze will begin to slip away, nobody knows for sure. But since taking its first shaky steps back in 1949, the WSOP has done nothing if not capture the world's attention. So while it's inevitable that today's mania will slowly begin to die down in favor of some other fad, one thing is for certain: the WSOP is here to stay.

Back to John Philip Vogel's Gambling Strategies