Playing poker for fun with a group of friends can be a time that is enjoyed by all. However, participating in one of the many different poker tournaments available can be something of a fascinating experience. Rather than playing against people who are friends and are well known, it offers a completely different arena to play poker in and asks for more skill to win the tournament.
Many towns, regardless of their size, offer some form of regular poker tournament. A lot of casinos will host their own internal poker tournament, whilst more and more bars and pubs are participating in a joint poker tournament. However, even considering the large amount of online poker tournaments that take place, the World Series of Poker is still the largest poker tournament on the poker calendar.
Starting in 1970 as a small time tournament, only seven professional poker players participated for an unknown minimal amount of money, the World Series of Poker, WSOP, tournament has grown exponentially each year, to the current day when several thousands of players enter the tournament.
The way the WSOP tournament works is by hosting several smaller events leading up to the main event, which is a 10,000 dollar buy in Texas Hold Em event. The winners of the smaller events progress until they reach the top of the ladder and are offered the chance of a buy-in to the main Texas Hold Em event.
Considering its popularity, it took nearly two decades before the WSOP really began to take off, when in 1987 there were in excess of 2000 participants playing in the whole series. The coverage that the WSOP received in the media and television broadcasts aided with this increase in entrants considerably and has helped bring the series to the forefront of the gambling world. A further two decades after 1987 and the main event alone, the 10,000 dollar buy in Texas Hold Em event, is attracting approximately four times as many people as it was twenty years earlier.
In 1976, six years after the WSOP began, the winner of the whole tournament has been awarded a much coveted WSOP bracelet and a substantial amount of money, although this has been part of the tournament since 1971. The first couple of years of the tournament saw the prize money start off at 30,000 dollars and rise to 340,000 dollars, which set the route throughout the 1980s where the prize money varied, at its highest being 775,000 dollars. However, it was not until 1991 when the prize money barrier was broke, hitting 1,000,000 dollars for which it stayed at until the turn of the millennium when things began to increase considerably. With the 2008 WSOP event having a prize money amount of 9,152,416 dollars, it was actually the 2006 WSOP that brought the highest amount of prize money, a collosal sum of over 12,000,000.
The great point about the WSOP, especially with the substantial prize money now available, is the fact that almost anyone can play in the event. Whether playing up the ranks from the smaller tournaments and leading to the final event, or gaining a direct entry by winning one of the many satellite tournaments available, for which winners are given an automatic place in the final, the WSOP can turn a small time poker player into a millionaire with a draw of the cards.
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