Online Texas Holdem Resource Center for the Pros

What's the Skinny on the Poker World Series?

Considered to be the poker tournament which is most prestigious in the world is the Poker World Series which began during the year 1969 and was started by Tom Moore from San Antonio, Texas. It was held at the Holiday Hotel and Casino located in Reno, and was an event that was by invitation.

Crandell Addington was the first person to win in this event and has been in the World Series of Poker's top ten about eight times since. His record is still unbeatable to this day in 2007. The various tournaments in the set that the World Series of Poker had later on evolved into, is known as the brainchild of the poker player and casino owner in Las Vegas, Benny Binion. It was due to him and his family that the World Series of Poker and poker, itself, became nurtured as poker was not very popular in many casinos before the 1970s due to the cheaters that were present and hard to get rid of.

The Binion clan introduced better techniques for security and did a lot of promotions in order to make poker a well-known game. And during the 1970s, the very first World Series of Poker was held at the Binion's Horseshoe which involved various cash games including deuce to seven, five card stud, low ball draw, seven card stud, texas hold 'em, and razz. It was also during the 1970s that Johnny Moss had been elected as the very first Poker World Champion, receiving a silver cup for the prize.

In the succeeding years after 1970, all the other events of World Series of Poker were tournaments that gave out cash as a prize, and there were even instances of gold bracelets being given out as prizes as well. There were many participants that gathered almost every year, and the number has continuously increased over those years. In the year 2000, for instance, about 4,780 people have joined in the various tournament events. And in the year 2005, that number had risen to more than twenty three thousand players! The rapid growth of the number of participants has been rather alarming and quite a pleasant surprise for the event managers.

There was big publicity going about in order to make the World Series of Poker event more popular, and even being aired on some very famous TV sport stations around the globe, as well as in the Travel Channel. There has been a big boom in all forms and variants of poker ever since.