WSOP 2011 is just a few days away and while looking forward and getting ready to the new series we would like to remember the history of this magnificent event to and see how it grew to become the most desirable and iconic live poker tournament. Having gone through the events between 1970 and 1989 we shall carry on the story.

Benny Binion the founder of World Series of Poker (WSOP) in1970 died on Christmas Day in 1989.

Jack Binion, his son, took over the empire and continued working on growing WSOP by attracting a lot of publicity attention, media interest around the world and improving player experience. His promotional work around the world certainly paid off and in 1990 Mansour Matloubi, an Iranian-born player from the UK, won the title. This was also the year that attracted the highest number of women and international players since the beginning of the Series. It was also the first time when WSOP became a four week event for the first time.
1991 was the first year when WSOP awarded the top winner the first prize of $1,000,000 and it was also the first time in history when the Main Event attracted more than 200 players. Brad Doherty, a professional poker player from Reno, Nevada won the top prize and the bracelet.

1992 Main Event attracted slightly less amount of players than the previous year, 201 compared to 215 a year before. The winner that year was Hamid Dastmalchi, an Iranian born American player, who won $1,000,000 top prize.

In 1993 the Main Event attendance was on the up again, with 220 players taking part. One of the most interesting facts of that year was that for the first time over half of the players qualified through various satellite events. Jim Betchell was the winner of $1 million first prize.

1994 was a special year for WSOP, which celebrated its 25th anniversary. To commemorate this Jack Binion offered the winner’s weight in silver in addition to the $1 million top prize. When the final table was assembled it did not look too bad for Binion as most of the players were slim, apart of Ross Hamilton, who weighed over 330 pounds and carried on enjoying hamburgers and chips through out the day. At the end his efforts were generously rewarded with $30,000 worth of silver bars on top of the first prize.

WSOP 1995 had a record 273 Main Event entrants and Dan Harrington picked up the $1,000,000 prize. The following year it was Huck Seed who came first with exactly the same hand of 9d, 8d as Harrington the year before.

1997 WSOP was the only time when the Main Event was held outdoors on a huge stage on Fremont Street, as Horseshoe casino could not fit a massive increase in the number of players. Stu Ungar was the winner that year and like Johny Moss became three times world champion. Scotty Nguyen came first the following year.

Following a decline of the Horseshoe Casino business and a break up in the Binion family, Jack Binion left WSOP operation and the Series seemed to loose their appeal to many professional players who stayed away between 1999 and 2002. However WSOP 2001 held a record 512 players in the main event and for the first time a $1,500,000 top prize. Chris Ferguson was the champion that year. Coincidently he was the last professional poker player to win the Series for many years to come.

2002 Championship started again with record braking figures, when 631 participants joined the Main event with $2,000,000 top prize and $1,000,000 for the runner up. Robert Varkonye, an amateur newcomer from New York, was such an expected winner, that Phill Helmuth said that he’d shave his head if Varkonye won.

In 2003 the critics started to think that the Series were at their end and no longer were capable to attract the poker players, since World Poker Tour (WPT) became a competitor. They however were to eat their words when 839 players took part in the main event. And when Chris Moneymaker won a record $2,500,000 first prize, he changed everything for the future of poker. To start with he was the first WSOP winner who won his place through live poker tournaments qualifiers online. This fact alone showed people around the world that $10,000 buy-in was no longer an issue and an entry ticket can be obtained in an online poker room through a series of online poker promotions. Also Chris was an extremely likable ordinary guy with who everyday poker players could identify and see themselves in his place. He was the perfect face for the new poker era.

In 2004 both the number of participants 2,576 players, most of who qualified through series of online poker promotions, and the prize money hit through the roof. If only one year earlier the top prize was a record breaking, at the time, $2,5 million the top prize that year was a staggering $5,000,000 and the top five finalists eared over $1 million each. The second place was paid with $3,5 million. Greg Raymer, a patent lawyer, won the Championship that year. Once again he got his place in the Series through online poker promotions. 2004 was also the year when WSOP operation was sold and Harrah’s Entertainments secured the property rights to WSOP.

In 2005 The Series moved into their new home RIO All-Suits Casino and Hotel. The numbers soared once again and became truly astronomical. The Main Event alone attracted 5,619 players! As the year before that most players joined the series through various online poker promotions held by an online poker room throughout the year. The prize pool was unbelievable with the top nine places earning over $1 million. The winner, Joe Hachem, cashed $7,500,000 and the runner up, Steve Dannenmann, won $4.25 million.

2006 once again broke all the previous records. 8,733 participants, $12 million top prize at the Main Event, which is higher than Wimbledon, The Masters and The Kentucky Derby top prizes put together, and $82 million total prize pool. The winner that year was Jamie Gold, a television producer from Australia, once again an unknown amateur player, who decided to play at the last minute. This was also the first year when a $50,000 buy-in High-roller event was introduced.

With introduction of UIEGA in 2006, there were universal concerns about the future of the big live poker tournaments as many online poker rooms, now major source of players for live poker events, moved out of the USA market and those rooms who stayed had to find the ways of getting player’s funds into the sites. In some ways such concerns were justified as 2007 was the only year of decline in history with “only” 6,358 players taking part and $8,250,000 top prize, which was won by Jerry Yang.

In 2008 the numbers were on the rise again with 6,844 players in the main event and $9,152,416 top prize, won by Peter Eastgate. 2009 Main Event saw 6,494 participants and $8,547,042 top prize for Joe Cada, an online poker player from Michigan. In 2010 the numbers continued to increase to 7,319 entrants into the Main Event and $68,798,600 total prize pool with a $8,944,138 top prize for Jonathan Duhamel, the first Canadian player to capture the title.

If you have not secured your place in Las Vegas this year yet, don’t worry, there is still time to qualify online to live poker events WSOP 2011 with Unleashed Poker as well as many other online poker promotions running now. And maybe, who knows it will be you crowned as a champion and making it into history in 2011.