The biggest tournament in all the world of poker right now is the World Series of Poker. This tournament has drastically improved in its popularity over the last couple of years. With the spread of poker across the internet and the availability of tournaments online it has almost taken over every home in America and around the world.
This year’s tournament, 2005, is being held at Harrah’s Rio Suites in Las Vegas, but the final two days will be held in its traditional location the Horseshoe in downtown Las Vegas.
To learn a little bit of the history of the World Series of Poker we have to go back to the year 1970 when it officially began. The first ever tournament was held in 1949, but not under the title “World Series of Poker” (read more, http://espn.go.com/eoe/wsop/history.html). The man who started all of this was, Benny Binion won the first two tournaments ever run, but lost after the second straight year to Thomas "Amarillo Slim" Preston. After winning the title, Thomas went on the talk-show circuit; and the WSOP began to gain a wider following.
The popularity of the World Series of Poker began to grow rapidly. In the early 1980s, with the introduction of preliminary satellite competitions with lower buy-ins, Binion's prophesy came to fruition and the popularity of the World Series of Poker soared. But even Benny Binion, who passed away on Christmas Day of 1989, would have had difficulty foreseeing the enormous growth the Horseshoe's annual tournament has experienced in the past decade or so.
In 1982, nine years after Mr. Binion participated in University of Nevada-Reno Oral History Project, talk about the success of the tournament spread and the tournament drew 52 entrants. Five years later, there were 2,141 participants, and the 2002 event attracted 7,595 entries. The prize money has increased proportionately, from $7,769,000 a decade ago to a staggering $19,599,230 in 2002. Whereas only 12 events, mostly Texas hold'em and seven-card stud, were scheduled as recently as 1988. The 2004 tournament offers 33 competitions that feature a wide variety of games.
Today the World Series of Poker is growing steadily. This year with the popularity of the online satellite tournaments; it could be the biggest turn out ever. If you are interested in participating in a satellite tournament, review these software packages.
