A Brief History of the World Series of Poker
It may be hard to imagine a time when there were only around 50 poker tables at the Las Vegas trip, a grand total of 70 for the whole state of Nevada and most casinos do not have a poker table in their premises but that was the circumstances when the World Series of Poker came into being.
The World Series of Poker was originally conceived by two Texan gamblers, Tom Moore and Vic Vickrey who wanted to organize an annual convention for poker enthusiasts. They invited a number of poker aficionados to join in what would be the first Texas Gamblers Reunion. As it turned out, that Texas Gamblers Reunion would not be only the first, it will also be the last as they would pass on the opportunity to organize the same convention the following year. Nevertheless, the convention sowed the seed of what would be the biggest poker event in the planet.
An enterprising casino owner and poker player named Jack Binion was encouraged by the convention that Moore and Vickrey had organized and he organized his own tournament based on what Moore and Vickrey had started. He named the poker tournament the World Series of Poker.
The first World Series of Poker was held in 1970 with only a handful of poker aficionados participating. No one knew outside of Las Vegas, much less the world, of the World Series as it attracted little to no attention outside poker aficionado rings. Binion was never discouraged though as he set out to bring prestige to the poker event.
The series became a freeze-out event the following year, with each participant posting a $5,000 participation fee. The next year after that, "Amarillo Slim" Preston won an upset victory that catapulted poker and World Series into the limelight for the first time. Since then, Preston has been the poster boy for the game and the event which immensely contributed to the media's and people's awareness.
The World Series of Poker enjoyed uninterrupted growth since then until the last years of 1990s when a series of controversies sparked an unprecedented deterioration for the Word Series of Poker in almost any aspect. Many were expecting the ultimate demise of the series when an unassuming poker player in the person of Chris Moneymaker turned the fortune of the World Series around. The win of Moneymaker, which was only in the World Series of Poker because he won a poker tournament online, signaled the advent of a new age for the series.
With all of its ups and downs, the World Series of Poker has proven to be a resilient icon of the card game and it is without doubt that it will still be the foremost venue where the best of the best in the poker world comes together in the foreseeable future.