E-WSOP

Welcome to e-WSOP : The World Series of Poker Blog

The World Series of Poker (WSOP) is poker’s biggest event, spanning nearly a month of high-stakes poker tournaments held in Las Vegas that culminate in the Main Event, a $10,000 buy-in event that crowns poker’s world champion for the year.

All of the stars of the poker world come out for the WSOP, as it’s truly poker’s biggest and brightest event, with millions and millions of dollars at stake each and every year! While the Main Event is the centerpiece attraction, the WSOP actually consists of more than 40 action packed tournaments, including the world’s biggest buy-in tournament, the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event that was added for the first time in 2006.

E-WSOP.com is here to provide you with a variety of information related to the WSOP, including WSOP schedules, results from past events, profiles of famous poker players, and breaking news, as well as a WSOP blog!

A quick look at the WSOP

If it is World Series of Poker, then you wouldn’t find a single player or a fan who is not glued to their seat. It might be difficult to find any poker enthusiast not following the game while it is on.

Most of them would prefer to be in Las Vegas in an effort to enter the main event. It’s quite evident with the way players were entering the main event in thousands. Over 9000 players entered the main event in WSOP 2009.

This is definitely challenging for poker professionals such as Chris Ferguson, Phil Hellmuth, Johnny Chan and many others as they have to face a field of over 9K players which include amateur players who just wait to catch a river card.

It becomes extremely difficult when amateurs come into play. This is true if you look at poker history. The poker pros have failed to win WSOP since 2001. It was Carlos Mortensen who achieved this feat and took down the prize.

The craze had never been such in the initial stage. Also the game wasn’t played above the table with players yelling at each other. It was Johnny Moss who brought some discipline to the game right in the beginning. He was in charge of putting a stop to any outbursts during the game.

Today the scene looks much different from how it was earlier. Nowadays you can see poker players who cheat end up being beaten and thrashed. There has been occasions when cheaters have been killed. Having said that it does not mean that people have lost respect for the game. It’s still considered to be a highly respectable game.

The origin of WSOP was small and it all began between a group of friends. It was organized by Jack Binion, owner of Horseshoe in Las Vegas. It was in the 1970 when Holdem wasn’t even popular. With less than 10 players, the tournament took off and they became part of poker history.

Some of the players went on to become stars in the game. Doyle Brunson, Amarillo Slim, and Johnny Moss are a few to name. Moss was finally voted as the best player and he was the first one to win the WSOP tournament. Soon the tournament started picking up pace and many other players started participating. Doyle Brunson then went on to win his back to back titles in 1976-77 which is still considered a great achievement in itself.

To have more people participate in the event, more side events were introduced during the 1980′s which included limit Holdem and Stud. WSOP -81 got coverage from NBC and this was the year which saw Stu Ungar clinch his back to back title.

The popularity of the tournament rose steadily during the 80s and it was when Johnny Chan took back to back titles in 1987-88 that the game got even more focus. He almost repeated the feat in 89 but for Phil Hellmuth. Poker got its youngest start in Phil who won the title in 1989.

The 90s saw big money rolling in the game with the winners taking home over a million dollars. 90′s also saw Stu Ungar make a comeback into the world of poker. He created history by winning the event for the third time.

Soon the number of players participating in the events increased which meant the professionals had to deal with a lot of amateur players. The amateurs have dominated the game since 2001 and from then on it’s yet to see a professional win the main title.