In 1970 Benny Binion invited the best poker players he knew, including Johnny Moss, Doyle Brumson, Amarillo Slim Preston, and Puggy Pearson to No-Limit Texas Hold’em against each other in front of a crowd at his casino, Binion’s Horseshoe. Instead of playing until one player had all the chips (as is common in modern poker tournaments), the players actually voted on who was the best, and Johnny Moss was unanimously chosen the winner of the first WSOP.
In 1971 the World Series was a freeze-out, winner-take-all tournament, which Johnny Moss again won. Over the following years, it evolved into a “shared purse” tournament, in which a larger number of top finishers win a share of the prize money, with the first place finisher getting the biggest slice of the prize money. Anyone was allowed to enter, as long as they had the $10,000 to pay for an entry.
While the WSOP grew slightly over the years, it wasn’t until 2003 that the tournament caught fire with the public, helping create the poker boom. Chris Moneymaker’s win made great press (he was an amateur who had never before played in a tournament) and helped catapult poker onto television and into the public eye. The tournament continued to grow dramatically, with more than 8,000 players entering the Main Event in 2006.
