Poker’s True World Championship - The World Series of Poker Main Event

There is no sports event or competition in the world that even comes close to the WSOP Main Event. I love it! No other sporting event or competition allows you to play against your heroes while sitting at a table for hours with celebrities like Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. And if you win it you can walk away with over $12 million - what's not to like?

Chris Moneymaker won it after winning an entry ticket in an $84 satellite tournament. It is unique, it is once a year and you can play it.

The most democratic event in the world pits billionaires, celebrities, professionals and amateurs together on the most even playing field imaginable. Your skill and luck are all you need to win. It is every poker players' dream and it is a dream that you can easily make come true. So here it is, the World Series of Poker Main Event, the story of an incredible event, a magical moment in tens of thousands of people's lives, a true bucket list to-do.

• Year founded – 1970
• Founder – Benny Binion
• Current owner – NSUS Group, parent company of GGPoker
• Current location – Paris and Horseshoe casino on the Las Vegas Strip
• Former locations – Binion’s Horseshoe (downtown Las Vegas), Rio Hotel & Casino (off-Strip Las Vegas property)
• Buy-in – $10,000
• Tournament format – freezeout, meaning no re-entries or rebuys
• 2024 winner and first-place prize payout – Jonathan Tamayo
• 2024 prize pool – $94 million

Benny Binion purchased the Eldorado Club and the Apache in downtown Las Vegas in 1951 and quickly transformed the properties to Binion’s Horseshoe. A longtime gambler and gangster from Dallas, Texas, Binion spared no expense in making his casino the place to be – and gamble.

“Headed to be one of the most lavish casinos in the downtown area, the new Horseshoe opens its doors today to expectant throngs,” the Las Vegas Sun noted at the time. “Across the terrazzo entrance with its embedded steel horseshoes, footsteps of throngs will pass, to immediately encounter deep pile rose carpet.”

Along with bringing in the finest for his establishment, Binion became well-known for taking bigger bets than most casinos. Constantly looking for ways to entice more gamblers to the Horseshoe, Binion shined at dreaming up unique promotions. He planted a wall of $1 million in cash in the casino. Guests could gamble a bit after posing for pictures next to the greenbacks.

Just a Publicity Stunt

Inspired by a poker event in Reno, Binion dreamed up another publicity stunt in 1970. The casino owner envisioned a high-stakes poker game that might captivate passers-by and entice them to hit the tables and slots as well.

In those days, poker was seen by many as an unsavory game. High-stakes poker action wasn’t easy to find and “road gamblers’ traveled throughout the southern United States looking for games. That sometimes meant getting robbed or needing a gun to get out of some sticky situations.

So when Binion called on some of his friends back in Texas to play in the game, they must have thought playing in the comfy confines of a casino for a while wasn’t a bad deal. The World Series of Poker and that first get-together included poker legends like Doyle Brunson, Johnny Moss, Amarillo Slim Preston, Walter “Puggy” Pearson, Sailor Roberts, Amarillo Slim, and Crandell Addington.

Voting for the Winner?!!!

That first event didn’t feature the tournament format seen today, and instead players voted Moss as the best all-around player. The first game was actually held a year later with a  buy-in of $5,000 and everyone playing Texas Hold’em, which would stick as the poker variant featured in the Main Event. Moss won again for $30,000 in a winner-take-all event that featured just six players.The 1971 series was also the first where side event, featuring four additional tournaments with $1,000 buy-ins.

The Main Event buy-in was set at $10,000 in 1972 and has been so ever since. That amount remains quite a bit of money to gamble for most people, but that was an even more sizable chunk at that time. That equates to about $77,000 in today’s dollars.

When the final cards were dealt Thomas Austin “Amarillo Slim” Preston topped a field of eight players for an $80,000 payout. His win added some real hoopla to the events in Las Vegas with frequent appearances on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. Americans were fascinated by his wit and witticisms as well as tales of high-stakes gambling.

The Main Event reached double digits in 1973 with 13 players getting in the action. Puggy Pearson came out on top for $130,000 and Moss won his third title a year later for $160,000, topping a field of 16.

The tournament reached 21 players in 1975, with Brian “Sailor” Roberts taking the top spot for $220,000. That ticked up by one entry in 1976 with poker legend Doyle Brunson claiming the win for $220,000. The field reached 34 players in 1977and Brunson won again for $340,000.

The End of Winner Take All

All this time, the tournament remained a winner-take-all event. That changed in 1978 when the top five players out of a field of 42 received a payout. Bobby Baldwin, just 28 at the time, became the youngest player to ever win at the time and took home $210,000.

Later in life, Baldwin went on to be a casino executive, working as the chief financial officer for Mirage Resorts under Steve Wynn. He later became CEO and President of the City Center project, home to the Aria casino.

By 1979, the total number of entries swelled to 54 for the first $1 million prize pool with Hal Fowler victorious. He is considered the first amateur to win and scored $270,000. Relatively unknown at the time, Fowler worked as an advertising executive before the win and proved that players from any walk of life had a chance to win – so long as they had $10,000 to enter.

Beyond dishing out big bucks to winners, the 1970s gave rise to two things that would be important to players in the coming decades – television coverage and championship bracelets. Binion introduced a gold bracelet for event winners in 1976 to add even more prestige to the tournament series. Early players didn’t give much thought to the bling, according to Brunson, but they would eventually become the biggest trophy in poker.

Almost 50 years later, a few names stand out in the race for the gold. Phil Hellmuth now leads the pack in bracelets with 17 (as of July 2025) after winning the Main Event and in 1989 (more on his win below). Others crossing the double-digit bracelet mark include Phil Ivey with 11, and Brunson, Johnny Chan, and Erik Seidel, all with 10 each.

TV Takes Poker Global

The 1970s also gave the WSOP the first bit of television coverage. In 1973, CBS SPorts Spectacular featured the Main Event and helped boost tournament numbers in the ensuing years. The coverage didn’t offer a chance to see players' hole cards, but gave those at home a chance to take in the action.

Viewers who may have been used to playing penny-ante poker with friends and relatives were able to experience the world of high-stakes poker for the first time. Coverage on the small screen would become even more important in the coming years.
 

By 1980, the Main Event reached an all-time high of 1980 and saw a new face rise to the top. Stu Ungar, a brilliant gin player from New York, switched to poker when he realized there was more money to be made.

Ungar became a gambler at an early age and proved to be a dominating force at the poker table. His fearless and aggressive style put opponents on defense in a game previously dominated by older players. Ungar took home $365,000 and won again in 1981, besting a field of 75 players for another $375,000.

Throughout much of the series’ early days, Texans shined at the series and that continued in 1982. The tournament cracked the 100-player mark for the first time and Jack “Treetop” Straus scored the win. That victory gave rise to one of the most popular sayings in poker. Early on day one, Straus moved all in. What followed would lead to one of the biggest comeback stories in World Series history.

“Someone bet, and Jack moved all his chips in, raising the original better,” poker legend Doyle Brunson said. “He didn't say ‘all in.’ After Jack lost the hand, he was getting up to leave and there was a $500 chip under a newspaper.”

Straus then went on to win the tournament for $520,000 and the saying is still uttered often today. 

Tom McEvoy found the winner’s circle in 1983 for $540,000. Originally from Grand Rapids Michigan, McEvoy turned to his poker skills after getting laid off from his accounting job in 1978. He became a major promoter of the game and helped lead the charge to get rid of the smoking in card rooms. He believed a smoke-free environment could bring in more players – increasing prize pools in the process.

The More Winners The More Players

Another major addition favored by McEvoy was the introduction of flatter payouts. His Main Event win brought him 50% of the prize pool, but he believed paying out more places could be good for the game. Players taking home a nice chuck would be more willing to keep playing rather than striking out more often than not or winning smaller amounts. McEvoy also lobbied for shorter sessions during tournaments.

“Some of these guys liked top heavy payouts,” he told Card Player magazine. “They didn't want to reveal hole cards. That was not to the benefit of poker in general, and favored a handful of the superstars at the time. But it wasn't good for poker. More people need to be paid and making these things marathon sessions made no sense.”

The Main Event continued to grow and 1987 and ‘88 saw another back-to-back winner who would become another poker legend. Johnny Chan – known as the “Orient Express” – emigrated from China and dropped out of college in Houston at age 21 to move to Las Vegas. That proved to be a wise decision and he won his first bracelet in 1985.

Two years later, Chan won the Main Event $625,000 when the field reached 152. That grew to 167 in 1988 and he came out on top again for $700,000. The ‘88 win was even featured in the 1998 film Rounders, which rates as one of the best films featuring the game. Chan attempted to make it three in a row in 1989, but was beaten in heads-up play by Phil Hellmuth.

The Phil Helmuth Era Brings Poker A Youthful Image

The 24-year-old became the youngest player ever to win at the time and cashed in for $178,000. Hellmuth would go on to become one of the biggest names in poker and also earned the name “Poker Brat” for his antics at the table. Bracelets became extremely important to Hellmuth and other players would join in the race to accumulate more.

“It was an amazing feeling,” Hellmuth said of winning the Main Event. “My dad flew out to support me, just on the chance that I won it. It was the first time he ever attended any tournament. Embracing him after winning the 1989 WSOP was one of the sweetest moments of my life. Winning the Main Event was my number one life goal. Luckily, I pulled it off early in my career.”

By 1991, the Main Event’s top payout reached $1 million and topped 200 entries for the first time. Brad Daugherty earned the distinction as the event’s first seven-figure winner.

The number of entries reached 268 by 1994 with Russ Hamilton finding the winner’s circle for $1 million. The Binion family’s promotional prowess returned as Benny’s son Jack promised to pay out the winner’s weight in silver bars along with the top prize.

The prospect of the extra loot apparently greatly interested Hamilton, who is said to have intentionally packed on the pounds throughout the tournament to increase his potential silver bar winnings. After the win, Hamilton weighed in at more than 300 pounds and scored an extra $28,500 in silver.

Good Beginnings Don't Always Mean Good Endings

Hamilton went on to be embroiled in scandal in the 2000s for allegedly running a sophisticated cheating scam at UltimateBet. The company eventually had to refund more than $22 million to cheated players.

A year later, Dan Harrington took the Main Event title for $1 million. The player from Cambridge, Massachusetts, had actually played poker with Bill Gates while the two attended Harvard University. Amazingly, Harrington reached the Main Event final table four times – finishing sixth in 1987, third in 2003, and fourth in 2004.

For the first time, the tournament reached more than 300 entries in 1997 with a familiar name staging another massive run. Stu Ungar won his third Main Event for $1 million. A year later, the card shark was found dead in a Las Vegas hotel room and the death was determined to be from a heart condition caused by years of drug abuse. Ungar died with little money and virtually no assets.

As the 1990s came to a close, the game saw the rise of another medium that would add to the interest in the WSOP – online poker. Players could now get online and compete against other players all around the world. That boost in interest helped the 1999 Main Event bring in an all-time high 393 entries.

By 2000, the Main Event seemed poised to take off exponentially. Online poker was in its infancy, but the number of players participating was growing steadily. Online operators began offering qualifiers with complete WSOP Main Event tournament packages up for grabs.

Interest in gold bracelets also seemed to be on the rise and what might have seemed like a silly prize initially suddenly became a goal for players around the world.

“I know a lot of players who are highly motivated by the appeal of winning a WSOP gold bracelet!” poker pro Kane Kalas told Casinos.com. “This includes amateurs and consummate pros alike. And among my friends who have already won a bracelet, I can attest to their insatiability; once you’ve tasted that glory you just want more.”

The Main Event spiked from 393 entries in 1999 to 512 in 2000 , when Chris Ferguson collected a $1.5 million payday. Ferguson, who earned a doctorate from UCLA in computer science, began playing at age 10 and used a mathematical approach to the game as an early adopter of game theory and computer simulations.

The Hole Cam Transformation

The next two years saw entries top 600 and then things really changed in 2003. Another opportunity offered a major boost to the WSOP during the 2000s – television. The game had been broadcast on occasion through the years, but coverage didn’t allow viewers to know exactly what cards a player was holding. This changed in the early 2000s when the World Poker Tour debuted the “hole card camera.”

For the first time, viewers could see the poker strategy inherent in the game and became fascinated. That carried over to the WSOP on ESPN and proved to be huge when Chris Moneymaker, an amateur player from Knoxville, Tennessee, won an $86 satellite tournament at PokerStars to secure an entry.

The merging of television, online poker, and an amateur winner with the perfect surname would catapult poker to an all-time high in popularity. Moneymaker’s run was shown over and over again in repeats on ESPN as the action continued to draw solid ratings. Viewers around the world saw him top a field of 839 players for a $2.5 million score and began asking, “Why not me?”

Moneymaker - Dream Name Kickstarts Professional Marketing

Moneymaker showed others that an amateur could sit at the table and come out a winner on occasion, even against seasoned pros. The win brought about the “Moneymaker boom” of the 2000s and he became the face of PokerStars for almost two decades before signing as an ambassador for ACR Poker in 2021.

Attendance more than tripled the following year with winner Greg Raymer receiving twice as much as Moneymaker for the win – $5 million. 2004 also saw some major changes for the series. Harrah’s (later to become Caesars Entertainment) acquired the series and announced that the events would move to the Rio casino in 2005.

The added space and momentum meant even more expansion for the series. The field doubled again in 2005 to 5,619 players and Australia's Joe Hachem won the bracelet and $7.5 million. The series only continued to grow.

The 2006 Main Event reached the pinnacle of the 2000s poker boom with Jamie Gold using “speech play” throughout the series to best a field of 8,773 players to win $12 million. Gold seemed to have a knack for talking players into folding or calling at just the right moments.

For the first time, the Main Event seemed to see the momentum slow down just a bit in 2007 when registration dropped to 6,358, but was still producing huge numbers compared to just a decade earlier. That bounced back to 6,844 in 2006, but then varied for a few years.

Online Players Dominate

This time not only saw thousands continuing to jump in the action but also saw the rise of online players at the final table. No longer did players have to hone their skills over time at a live table. Online poker allowed competitors to see thousands and thousands of hands over a relatively short amount of time, packing away poker knowledge that it took the old timers years to accrue.

Main Event winners like Peter Eastgate (2006), Joe Cada (2009), Pius Heinz (2011), Greg Merson (2012), Martin Jacobson (2014) and others were well-versed in the online game. Eastgate became the youngest player in history to win at just age 22.

US Legal Changes End the Poker Boom

The 2010s saw a major change in the world of online poker. The U.S. federal government cracked down on wide-open online poker in 2011 and Americans could no longer legally participate. That changed in 2013 when the industry began to be offered on a regulated state-by-state basis. WSOP Online has grown through the years and now offers online bracelets, WSOp Circuit championship ring events, and satellites.

The poker boom of the 2000s may have been over, but poker was still in a good place. WSOP Main Event numbers were steady in the 6,000 to 7,000 range throughout the 2010s and even reached 8,569 in 2019 when Hossein Ensan came out on top for $10 million. However, 2020 would see a much different scenario.

The world saw a major change in 2020 with the COVID pandemic and that caused major change in the world of poker – both positive and negative. Major events were canceled around the world as those in the industry worked to minimize the potential spread of the virus.

COVID Drives the WSOP Online

Many players shifted their action to the virtual tables and online operators worked to meet renewed demand. The pandemic brought major changes for the WSOP as well, with most of the action taking place online that year. However, organizers still wanted to see some kind of Main Event.

That resulted in a tournament on GGPoker online on Nov. 29 for international players with another run on Dec. 13 at WSOP.com. Each event played to the final table and the action was then played live at Kings Casino in the Czech Republic and another at the Rio. Argentina’s Damian Salas came out on top at the international final table for $1.6 million and Louisiana’s Joseph Hebert rose to the top at the American final table for the same amount.

The two were then to meet in a heads-up, winner-take-all showdown for $1 million. In the end, Salas added another seven-figure score.

“Joseph was a very hard opponent, and he played really well,” Salas said afterward. “In a few instances, he was about to win, it was a real fight and he never slowed down. Going into the championship, I felt all the energy and support from my family and friends in Argentina tonight, and that helped me. I take every challenge like a new opportunity and to enjoy this poker passion that I have.”

The unique Main Event scenario meant only a total of 1,379 entries that year. But the pandemic also had a positive effect. Players heading back online suddenly had a renewed interest in the game and were eager to get back in the action.

In 2021, still in the middle of the pandemic, the WSOP was held once again and the Main Event saw 6,650 entries when Koray Aldemir scored the win for $8 million. It was a nice resurgence considering what the world was dealing with. In the coming years, tournaments around the world would see record numbers.

Live Streaming Generates Renewed Interest

Not only had a renewed interest in online poker meant more players getting back in the game, but Twitch streaming and YouTube vlogging were really taking off, reaching new players who might be interested in getting in the action. There also seemed to be a new poker podcast every other day and poker’s media footprint had never been bigger.

At the same time, the WSOP began working to boost numbers even more – announcing additional online qualifiers via WSOP Online and GGPoker. Other live satellites were added at casinos around the world. Live streaming via PokerGO allowed fans to check out the action all summer and long for a bracelet of their own.

The WSOP Gets a New Home

After Caesars sold the Rio in 2019, the WSOP needed a new home for the 2022 events. Caesars rebranded Bally’s as the Horseshoe, returning the series to a casino with a familiar name for the poker festival. The neighboring Paris casino was also used and brought the WSOP to the Las Vegas Strip for the first time.

The mini-boom continued to juice numbers and the Main Event saw 8,663 entries with Norway’s Espen Jørstad snagging a $10 million payday. That wasn’t enough for WSOP organizers and a renewed interest was placed on breaking the entry record set in 2006 when Jamie Gold won over an 8,773-entry field.

The effort worked and the 2023 tournament brought in a massive 10,043 entries. Daniel Weinman, of Atlanta, Georgia, was the last man standing and secured a payout of $12.1 million.

Game Theory at the WSOP Final Table?

A year later that record fell and Jonathan Tamayo, of Humble, Texas, topped 10,112 players for a $10 million score (the WSOP had increased  the top payout in 2023). The win didn’t come without controversy. Tamayo’s team on the rail appeared to use solvers during play and he was able to look at them in between hands during play. The WSOP then made changes – implementing stricter rules regarding electronic devices, particularly in the later stages of tournaments.

Many players still clamor for bracelets and now they can be won not only in Las Vegas, but also in numerous events online during and after the WSOP. Live international series also hand out bracelets to winners as well in Europe and other parts of the world. 

This may mean more opportunities to win and accumulate hardware, but it hasn't come without criticism. Some feel that bracelet aren't quite as special outside of some of the more marquee events.

“So, on the topic of whether bracelets matter, they mattered back in the day,” Chris Moneymaker says. “I don’t really feel like bracelets matter that much outside of two – the Main Event and the Poker Players Championship. I think the WSOP has watered down their brand so much that bracelets are kind of Irrelevant almost.”

Buy-ins for some have been reduced through the years in some side events as well, so much so that the series now hosts an event as low as $300. The number of live events has also ballooned, reaching 100 in 2025 with another 30 online events.

“They diluted the value of bracelets a long time ago and it's only gotten more ridiculous every time they run another online series where they hand out a bracelet in $50 tournaments,” four-time bracelet winner Dominik Nitsche says. “Bracelets used to be exciting and fun to chase. But that was before they literally gave out hundreds a year.”

Despite that criticism, the WOSP continued attracting record fields and that has gone for the Main Event. Organizers have argued that multiple price points are better for the game and allow more players to chase bracelets. There are plenty of events for high-stakes pros and some lower buy-in events for “weekend warriors” with plenty of events in between.

The series saw another big change in 2024. After a long relationship with GGPoker, the world’s biggest online poker operator’s parent company NSUS purchased the series for $500 million. The company promised to grow the brand even more – incorporating additional online and live tournaments around the world.

“We will leverage GGPoker’s cutting-edge technology and industry expertise to create an exciting future for WSOP, ensuring players have an increasingly improved, safe, and seamless poker experience,” NSUS CEO Michael Kim said. “Under the new leadership, NSUS intends to expand WSOP worldwide, positioning it at the forefront of poker’s growth.”

As part of the deal, Caesars retained the right to host the live tournament series in Las Vegas for the next 20 years. Caesars poker rooms will also continue featuring WSOP branding, and the company will get preferential rights to host live WSOP Circuit events. Caesars Digital secured a license to continue operating the WSOP Online poker platform in the U.S.

2025 marked the first year that GGPoker ran the WSOP and players have been pleased for the most part about how things turned out. The 2025 Main Event could once again break records and the poker spectacle has come a long way from that first event in 1970 when just a few players participated. There may be many more bracelets handed out now, but whoever claims victory in the $10,000 Main Event will be proud to hoist that shiny piece of gold – and collect plenty of cash.