About the History of the WSOP
The World Series of Poker tournament is the biggest event in the world of poker. WSOP history goes back to 1970 and since then, the WSOP provided an opportunity for thousands of poker players from around the world to participate in the WSOP games and compete against the worlds top poker players, and, of course, to win lots of money. Today, with it mass media coverage; the WSOP events draw attention even from people outside the poker world. Here you can read about the WSOP history. You can read here about WSOP history since the idea was first suggested until our days.
WSOP history starts formally in 1970, when the first event took place at the legendary Horseshoe casino in Las Vegas. The idea was born more than twenty years before the first tournament occurred.
According to the WSOP history, in 1949, the poker player Nicholas Dandolos, known as Nick the Greek, first suggested the idea to Benny Binion, the owner of Horseshoes Vegas casino. He suggested Binion would organize a poker marathon with the biggest poker players of their time. Binion agreed to host a game between Dandolos and the famous poker pro Johnny Moss. Binion suggested the marathon would be open to the wide public.
The marathon carried on for five months, and the two poker opponents took breaks from their game only to catch some sleep. Moss eventually won the game and earned about 2 million dollars. At the end of the marathon, when Dandalos lost his last chip, he got up from his chair and spoke the most famous poker saying in the WSOP history: Mr. Moss, I have to let you go.
Though the 1949 marathon attracted a surprisingly large number of viewers as well as media attention, it took Benny Binion more than 20 years to establish the first World Series of Poker event. The world top poker players took part in the 1970 WSOP. The first WSOP champion was Johnny Moss who was selected by a democratic vote. Johnny Moss won the WSOP the following year, but in 1972, he was beaten by Thomas Preston, known as Amarillo Slim. At this point of the WSOP history, the event started gaining wider attention amongst the public crowd.
The popularity of WSOP increased during the early 1980s, with the development of satellite competitions with lower buy-ins. Binion died in 1989 and could not get to see the huge popularity the poker tournament gained during the last decade. In the current last chapter of the WSOP history, there is a massive growing in the numbers of participants, bigger many prizes and huge mass media coverage.
