50 Years of The World Series of Poker
To celebrate the 50th Annual World Series of Poker, the team at Casino.org decided to put together a complete timeline of its history. Although the WSOP’s official debut was in 1970, the idea behind it all began a couple of decades before with a poker marathon at Binion’s Horseshoe in Las Vegas. Today, Benny Binion is still remembered for creating one of the most prestigious gaming competitions in the world.
Decades
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1949
Poker marathon organized by Benny Binion between Nicholas “Nick the Greek” Dandolos and Johnny Moss. They played for five months straight all in the public view at Binion's Horseshoe casino, which attracted a lot of attention.
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1969
Texas Gamblers Reunion. Tom Moore and Vic Vickrey organized the event in Reno, with top-tier poker players competing in several high-stakes cash games spread over several days. Binion combined this with previous experience of the poker marathon as inspiration to create a new poker tournament.
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1970
First ever World Series of Poker event. Some of the best players in the country competed but Johnny Moss was voted the winner.
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1973
CBS Sports televised WSOP for the first time.
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1978
The Main Event's prize money was divided among the top five finishers for the first time.
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1978
Barbara Freer was the first woman to ever enter the WSOP.
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1979
Hal Fowler was the first amateur player to win.
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1982
The WSOP expanded to 11 preliminary events, including a Ladies World Championship and a $10,000 buy-in Main Event.
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1983
First satellite events to fill the seats of the event with everyday poker players.
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1989
Benny Binion died on Christmas day, leaving his son Jack to continue the acceleration of the WSOP.
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1990
Mansour Matloubi, an Iranian expat living in England, became the first non-American to win the championship.
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1991
The prize hit $1 million for the first time and the main event attracted over 200 players.
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1999-2002
Boycotts of WSOP. Controversies hit the headlines and Jack Binion was excluded after family feuds.
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2002
First use of “sneak peak”, later called the pocket cam or hole cam.
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2003
Chris Moneymaker, an online poker player who earned his seat at the table with PokerStars, won the event, $2.5 million, and forever changed the face of poker - online and offline. The David-and-Goliath story was captured in full detail thanks to increased ESPN coverage that year.
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2004
Binion's Horseshoe was sold out to Harrah's Entertainment, including the rights to the World Series of Poker.
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2005
The WSOP moved to the RIO All-Suites Casino and Hotel. More space meant more tournaments and bigger prize pools.
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2005
First WSOP-themed video game released. WSOP video poker machines appeared at some Harrah's casinos.
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2005
The World Series of Poker Circuit launched, as a build up to the WSOP and offered smaller tournaments outside of Las Vegas.
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2007
The World Series of Poker Europe was created and, for the first time, a WSOP bracelet was awarded outside of Las Vegas.
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2015
Launch of WSOP International Circuit, with events in Europe, Africa, South America and more. The two winners of each WSOP Circuit stop automatically qualified for the season-end championship.
