World Series of Poker

WPF is proud to serve as your primary source of information and news for the World Series of Poker. The WSOP has been the world’s largest poker tournament for four decades. The first WSOP took place in 1970 at the Horseshoe Casino in Las Vegas and was an invitational where Benny Binion invited six of the best known poker players to compete. However, the winner of the first WSOP was not the one to win the tournament, the first WSOP Champion was decided in a secret ballot.

The early years of the WSOP were nothing like the current two-month poker series. They were much smaller, but it all changed with the introduction of satellite tournaments in the early 80's. Players were now able to take part in small live poker tournaments and win their seats to the WSOP.

In 2003 the first online qualifier, Chris Moneymaker won the World Series of Poker Main Event which was televised all over the US by ESPN. This encouraged millions of people to start playing online poker, causing the “Moneymaker effect” – a sudden growth of the online poker industry.

Today the World Series of Poker is the largest and the most popular poker event in the world. Each year thousands of poker players come to Las Vegas in hopes of winning a WSOP bracelet.