The World Series of Poker is the most popular professional poker competition. The World Series of Poker is actually the most prestigious set of poker tournaments in the world. The tournament is held every year in Las Vegas, Nevada and it lasts for a few days to over a month. The prize that the winner gets at the end of the tournament is known as a bracelet. This tournament includes about fifty plus events consisting of all the major varieties of poker games.  

There is the $10,000 "Main Event" which attracts thousands of poker players from all over the world. The winner in the end takes ten million US dollars.

The first World Series of Poker was held in the year 1968 at the Holiday Hotel and Casino in Reno. It was started by Tom Moore. This event was won by Crandell Addington. Crandell then went forward to win this event a record eight times and this record remains unbroken even today. However it was Benny Binion, a famous Las Vegas casino owner who set up a series of these events along with his two sons Jack and Ted. The World Series of Poker is also known as WSOP in short.

It was only through the promotional efforts by the Binion family that the World Series gained a lot of recognition and soon became popular. Poker was not very popular in the 1970s as there were too cases of cheating in the game. But the Binion introduced high security systems to keep the cheaters at bay.  

From the year 1971, all the WSOP series are events with cash prizes. In the year 1973, a new event by the name of Five card stud was also introduced with the main event which was known as no limit Texas hold'em. There have been many events that have been introduced and many events which have seen the end of the day since then. The prize for each event, as mentioned before is a gold bracelet along with the cash that is brought in cardboard boxes.  

Phil Hellmuth takes the lead in the World Player Series with eleven bracelets to his name. Doyle Brunson and Johnny Chan jointly hold the second position with ten bracelets. There is a record as well where the father and the son have won an event in this competition. Todd Brunson is Doyle Brunson's son.

The number of participants in the World Series of Poker is steadily increasing ever since it was introduced. For example, in the year 2000 there were 4,780 players while in the year 2005 the number of players increased almost four times to 23,000 players. In the main event in the series known as the "Moneymaker Event", the number of players has increased from 839 in the year 2003 to 8,773 in the year 2006. The event has been covered for the whole world to see on ESPN channel and also on the Travel Channel.  

In the year 2005, the WSOP took place at Harrah's properties. There were twenty qualified players at each of the main events. In the main event Harrah made an announcement that the next tournament will be held at Harrah's own eleven properties as well as Bally's and Caesar's properties.

The event is sponsored by corporate brands every year. There are licensed products as well and the corporates pay fees to market their products and services as well as its licensees. Some of the major sponsors in the last few years have been Adrenaline Rush energy drink, Pepsi, GlaxoSmithKline, Levitra and Hershey. Harrah earns over a million dollars for fees and licenses alone each year. 

Some more facts

The WSOP Main Event is the $10,000 buy-in no-limit Texas Hold 'Em tournament. The winner of the tournament is given a bracelet, a cash prize as well as his picture which is placed in the Gallery of Champions. The winner is traditionally given the unofficial title of World Champion, but it is the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event that decides the official champion of the year. This event has games like Holdem, Omaha, Razz, Seven Card Stud and Eight-or-better. The event in 2006 was won by Chip Reese.   

Recent WSOP Winners

• 2006 - Jamie Gold - 12,000,000
• 2005 - Joe Hachem - 7,500,000
• 2004 - Greg Raymer - $ 5,000,000
• 2003 - Chris Moneymaker - $ 2,500,000
• 2002 - Robert Varkonyi - $ 2,000,000
• 2001 - Juan Carlos Mortensen - $ 1,500,000