The Evolution of the World Series of Poker (WSOP)

Evolution of the World Series of Poker

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The Evolution of the
World Series of Poker
Learn how the WSOP Main
Event has grown from a mere
6 players in 1971 to over
8,700 players in 2006

There are few people today, even among non-poker enthusiasts, who have
not heard of the World Series of Poker. Anyone who watches television will
have difficulty missing either a replay of one of the events, or another poker
program featuring successful World Series of Poker players. When Jamie Gold
won 12 million dollars in 2006 by besting a field of over 8700 players, it was
international news. Interestingly, the first time the no limit Texas hold’em
main event of the World Series of Poker was held to determine the WSOP
champion, in 1971, there were 6 players, quite a bit fewer than 8700. So how
has the World Series of Poker evolved to such heights?

In 1971, the first innovation began, when a freezeout no limit Texas hold’em
tournament was decided on as the championship event. Number of players,
six. In 1972, the buy-in for the event was doubled from $5000 to $10,000 -
where it remains today. The doubled prize pool caused the event to
skyrocket to eight players. In 1973, the event was filmed for the first time
ever. Whether this encouraged other players to sign up is unknown, but sign
up they did, 13 of them in total. In 1978, the tournament was restructured so
that multiple finishers participated in the prize pool, rather than having it be
winner take all. This innovation was appealing enough to garner 42 entries.

This was still a far cry from 8700, but an innovation that occurred around this
time helped move things along. Eric Drache, the manager of the tournament,
came up with the idea of the satellite, a single table tournament with a buy-
in of 1/10 the amount of the full event, with the winner getting a seat in the
main event. This made getting into the event considerably easier, and by
1982, the event boasted 104 players. After the initiation of satellites, the
main event steadily added a few players to the field every year. In 1994, as a
25th anniversary promotion, the winner learned he would receive his weight
in silver as a bonus prize. The field lining up to play poker for that plus a
million dollars was 268 players.

Still a good distance from fields in the thousands. But two innovations still to
come would change everything. By 2003, online poker sites were coming into
their own. One idea that Internet players found particularly appealing was
the online satellite. Now players could win a buy-in to the main event from
their very own homes, often for a fraction of the price, depending on the
satellite. That year, 839 players found their way into the main event. Also
that year, hole card cam technology had been refined. This meant that
viewers tuning into ESPN that year did not need to speculate on what
players might be holding based on their actions. The cameras told all, and
fans could follow every aspect of the poker game knowing exactly what the
players held. Thus, when accountant Chris Moneymaker, a complete amateur
qualifying through an online satellite, won it all, more people were watching,
and were inspired, than ever before.

That epic year burst the bubble. In 2004, the number of players in the main
event exploded to over 2000, in 2005, over 5000, and in 2006 over 8700,
generating record amounts of coverage and record prize pools. How much
the event will grow from here is anybody’s guess.

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