World Series of Poker (WSOP)

This is the diamond in the crown of Live Poker tournaments, the biggest and most important of the poker calendar. The tournament was born in Las Vegas, the home of gambling back in 1970. The tournament has seen unbelievable growth and while many will know it for the Texas Holdem World Championship, the 2009 series will comprise of 57 individual tournaments. 

Omaha, 2-7 Draw Lowball, H.O.R.S.E , they all have their place at the World Series of Poker.   In its current format, the series takes nearly two months to complete between May and July. The events buy-in range from $500 to $40,000 but the $10,000 buy in World Championship No-Limit Texas Hold’em is without doubt, the WSOP’s biggest attraction.  In 2008 the final table took place in November. 

With such a rich history the WSOP main event understandably has some amazing tales but few can beat the story of Chris Moneymaker (a great name!!) when he became World Champion in 2003. Chris like us here at Poker-Shark.co.uk played online poker. When he entered a $39 satellite to the WSOP he could never have imagined that he would soon become one of the most talked about Poker players of all time and would net himself a cool $2.5m in the process. Not a bad return and Moneymaker started his journey with one of our partners, Poker Stars Online Poker Room.

The 2003 main event gave the whole industry a massive boost and the WSOP benefited tremendously from this!  839 people took part in this main event but in 2008 when Peter Eastgate, qualified through Ladbrokes online Poker room (another partner of Poker-Shark.co.uk!!)  won $9,152,416, he beat off competition from 6,844 other hopefuls! Hats off to the chap.

Below you can see the WSOP main event roll of honour since its humble beginnings in 1970:

1970       Johnny Moss                   (awarded by vote)

1971       Johnny Moss                    $30,000

1972       Preston K J                       $80,000

1973       Walter Pearson                $130,000

1974       Johnny Moss                    $160,000

1975       Brian Roberts                   $210,000

1976       Doyle Brunson                 $220,000

1977       Doyle Brunson                 $340,000

1978       Bobby Baldwin                 $210,000

1979       Hal Fowler                         $270,000

1980       Stu Ungar                           $385,000

1981       Stu Ungar                           $375,000

1982       Jack Straus                        $520,000              

1983       Tom McEvoy                       $540,000              

1984       Jack Keller                          $660,000            

1985       Bill Smith                            $700,000

1986       Berry Johnston                  $570,000

1987       Johnny Chan                      $625,000

1988       Johnny Chan                      $700,000

1989       Phil Hellmuth Jr                 $ 755,000

1990       Mansour Matloubi              $895,000

1991       Brad Daugherty                  $1,000,000

1992       Hamid Dastmalchi            $ 1,000,000  

1993       Jim Bechtel                         $ 1,000,000

1994       Russ Hamilton                   $ 1,000,000

1995       Dan Harrington                   $ 1,000,000

1996       Huck Seed                           $ 1,000,000

1997       Stu Ungar                             $ 1,000,000

1998       Scotty Nguyen                      $1,000,000

1999       Noel Furlong                       $1,000,000

2000       Chris Ferguson                  $1,500,000

2001       Juan Carlos Mortensen    $500,000

2002       Robert Varkonyi                   $2,000,000

2003       Chris Moneymaker             $2,500,000

2004       Greg Raymer                       $5,000,000

2005       Joe Hachem                        $500,000

2006       Jamie Gold                          $12,000,000

2007       Jerry Yang                            $8,250,000

2008       Peter Eastgate                    $9,152,416