WSOP Winners List

The World Series of Poker represents the best in poker. The WSOP is the most prestigious poker tournament in the world, with the biggest winners and the most exciting series.

What makes the World Series of Poker so prestigious? Its history.

For more than three decades before the “Poker Boom” years of the early 2000s, the WSOP was the place to go for poker players.

In 1969, Tom Moore and Vic Vickrey invited the best players in the world to the Holiday Casino in Reno, Nevada for the Texas Gamblers Reunion.

At the time, only cash games were played, and as Benny Binion, owner of Binion’s Horseshoe, watched the action, he was planning on hosting an annual event in Las Vegas. After confirming with Moore and Vickery that they didn’t plan to hold another reunion, Binion got their blessing to take the show to Vegas.

1970 saw the birth of the WSOP. That year, Binion invited seven of the best players in the world to compete. Once again, they just played cash games, and players were asked to vote on who they thought was the best player.

Unsurprisingly, everyone voted for themselves. Binion then called for a second vote where all players had to vote for another player. Johnny Moss received the most votes and became the winner of the first annual WSOP, receiving a silver cup as an award.

From there, Binion changed the rules and the WSOP became a freezeout tournament. 1971 saw six players pay $5,000 to buy into the first WSOP tournament. Moss won again, taking home $30,000.

The following year, the buy-in was increased to $10,000 and it has remained the same ever since.

The WSOP grew year by year. Additional tournaments were added to the schedule, and in 1976 the silver cup was replaced with the now coveted bracelet.

For more than 50 years, winning the WSOP Main Event has been the dream of every poker player. Two players have won it three times (Moss and Stu Ungar), while Doyle Brunson and Johnny Chan have won it twice. All four of them did it in back-to-back years.