The World Series of Poker: Past and Present

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.

In 1967, Vic Vickrey, a ‘Las Vegas casino veteran’, was charged by owner Reno Holiday Hotel and Casino owner Tom Moore to increase traffic at the establishment. To this end, Vickrey invited some of Texas’ highest rollers to what he termed ‘a gaming fraternity vacation’. The high-rollers came, with Vickrey tossing them $3000 to fight over at the poker table, but this incentive derailed his plans. The gamblers, including Benny and Jack Binion, Moss and Doyle Brunson, never made it to the craps or blackjack tables, staying in their cozy poker corner.

The promotion proving a failure, when Jack Binion approached Vickory about continuing the tradition, Vickory washed his hands of it. The Binions, remembering that 1949 match, holding a belief that their was a place for poker in the world of competition and seeing in it what others could not, decided to host the first World Series in Poker in 1970.

That first Series had little structure. Seven players came, played then elected a champion, Moss. Ted Thackery, an LA Times reporter, told Benny there needed to be a more definitive means by which a champion could be crowned. Puggy Pearson, a long-time pro and poker Hall of Famer, came up with the concept of the freezeout (or at least is credited with finally putting a definitive finish on the idea) and in 1971, the first freezeout World Series was played. Each of the six entrants put up $5,000 with the winner taking all; again, Moss emerged the champion. The next year, the buy-in was raised to $10,000, where it’s stayed ever since.

As the World Series of Poker has gone, so has poker itself and vice versa. Today, the event draws poker players from all over the world, enjoying a remarkable growth that’s seen its numbers increase in each of its thirty-seven years. The Main Event, universally recognized as the World Championship of Poker, is just one of dozens of events held in the two month marathon. The winner of each event receives a gold bracelet in addition to their thousands for the victory. Today, the bracelet is held in the same esteem as golf’s green jacket. Many winners have stated the title meant more than the thousands—or millions—of dollars that came with it.

Little is left of those early series’. The six players in 1971 have grown to 8,773 in 2006, with the prize pool of $87,730,000 breaking all records for competitive endeavors. Now owned by Harrah’s, the World Series of Poker brand is world-reknown. It remains a cornerstone of the industry.