World Series of Poker Main Event

For over thirty years, the Main Event at the World Series of Poker has had the largest prize pool and largest player field of any poker tournament in the world. Ever since the first Main Event in 1971, the tournament has been a No Limit Hold'em event with a $10,000 buy-in.

The winner of the WSOP Main Event is widely considered as the "champion of poker" for the year, and receives a gold bracelet to signify his/her accomplishment (along with a handsome payday).

The Main Event has seen a growth spurt in the last few years due to televised coverage on ESPN. World Series of Poker telecasts are largely credited for the online poker boom, as new players wish to play poker without traveling to a local casino. Plus, players can qualify for the Main Event at online poker sites by playing satellites tournaments.

Past Winners of the Main Event

The first World Series of Poker was held in 1970, and didn't have a typical "Main Event". Instead, players simply played poker for a few days, and then voted for who they thought was the best poker player at the table. Johnny Moss was unanimously selected by his peers to become the first WSOP champion.

The WSOP saw a drastic change in 1971 when the event determined its winner in a typical poker tournament, instead of voting for the best player at the table. The first Main Event drew six entrants, and was a winner-take-all affair. Once again, Johnny Moss was the best player at the table, and took home the $60,000 first place prize.

Over the next few years the Main Event went away from the winner-take-all format as the tournament drew more and more entrants. Over the years, some of the game's finest players were crowned Main Event champions, such as Doyle Brunson in 1976 and 1977, Bobby Baldwin in 1978, Stu Ungar in 1980 and 1981, Tom McEvoy in 1983, Johnny Chan in 1987 and 1988, and Phil Hellmuth in 1989. These champs, along with many more have all been awarded the famous gold bracelet along with enormous prizes for their first place finishes.

Televised Coverage of the Main Event

The Main Event actually saw TV coverage as early as 1973 when Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder covered the tournament on a local station. In the 1980s the event was broadcast as a special event on television sets until it was picked up by ESPN in the late 1980s, which started airing one hour specials.

The Main Event started picking up more steam in the 1990s when poker players like Vince Van Patten, Gabe Kaplan, and Phil Hellmuth offered commentary on ESPN broadcasts of the tournament. At the same time, ESPN also started broadcasting coverage of the lesser buy-in events that took place leading up to the Main Event.

The Discovery Channel took over WSOP broadcasts in 2000 for a few years until ESPN once again took over rights in 2002. Chris Moneymaker won the Main Event in 2003, and set off a chain reaction that caused a poker boom.

WSOP Main Event Qualifiers

Another main cause for the Main Event's explosion in popularity was the addition of online satellite qualifiers. Most players cannot afford to put up $10,000 to directly buy in to the tournament, but most players can afford a couple hundred dollars to play some satellite qualifiers, and hopefully satellite in to the Main Event

Every time an online satellite runs, another player qualifies for the Main Event. These satellites add up, and end up contributing a major portion of the player field to the Main Event. Also, satellite winners have proven that they aren't pushovers, as quite a few final tableists of late have been satellite entrants. In fact, Chris Moneymaker won his way into the 2003 WSOP by playing a satellite at PokerStars.com.

If you want to play in WSOP satellites, make sure to check out Full Tilt Poker. Full Tilt offers tons of WSOP Main Event satellites, and also promises to pay $10 million to any player who satellites in via Full Tilt and wins the Main Event. This $10 million prize is in addition to the prize the player would receive for winning the Main Event.