The World Series of Poker

In 1949, Nick the Greek Dandalos approached Benny Binion about arranging the highest-stake poker game Vegas had ever seen. Binion called in old friend Johnny Moss, with the two titans immediately embarking on a five month match that saw Moss win an estimated $2 million. The match ended famously, when Dandalos, rising from the table, announced “Mr. Moss, I have to let you go.”

The match was played in the most prominent area of the old El Dorado Club, which Benny would later re-name Binion’s Horseshoe Casino. With the crowd of spectators constantly five deep and at times three times that, the idea served as a spark twenty years later...

» The World Series of Poker and its events.

The World Poker Tour

While the World Series of Poker is our link to the past, the World Poker Tour is as responsible as any party for the present cultural revolution poker has undergone. Along with the World Series, it’s the one circuit whose name has transcended the industry to the point of mainstream recognition.

Founded by poker enthusiast Steve Lipscomb, the WPT became a plausible idea when Dr. Henry Orenstein received the patent for hole-card technology. ‘The lipstick camera’ was first used in the World Heads-Up Poker Championship at the Isle of Man in 2001, but its importance only became obvious when Lipscomb applied it to the World Poker Tour...

» The World Poker Tour and its events.