The highlight is and remains the World Series of Poker (WSOP)
The World Series of Poker, WSOP is a poker tournament series that takes place once a year in the Las Vegas gambling community and lasts in a month. There are varieties of different events, but the most famous and prestigious one is the Texas No Limit Hold’em Main Event with a $10,000 buy-in. The winner of the occasion is usually unofficially referred to as a poker world champion.
Any player aged 21 and over may participate. From 1970 to 2004, the WSOP was held at Binion’s Horseshoe, and since 2005, all tournaments were held at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino.
Since 2007, the World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) was held in the U.S., thus making it 18 years. Again in 2013 and 2015, the World Series of Poker Asia Pacific (WSOP APAC) was played.
Bracelets
Any player that wins one of the WSOP events will receive, in addition to the prize money, a very valuable gold bracelet. This bracelet as it is called in English has the shape of a wristwatch; carries instead of a dial and a golden emblem of the World Series of Poker.
The bracelets are sought after, not because of the material value, but for the moral value it upholds. If you have a WSOP bracelet, you have successfully won against several or even thousands of participants in a tournament.
Many players take part in the record hunt to go down in history. Up till date, the Poker Hall of Fame member Phil Hellmuth has achieved a total of 15 bracelets. Steve Billirakis, the youngest ever winner of a bracelet, was 21 years and 12 days old.
Player of the Year
Since 2004, in addition, a Player of the Year Award has been awarded to the player who has earned the most points from all tournaments in the annual event. Daniel Negreanu was the only player to have been honored twice as Player of the Year so far. The calculation of the points varies from year to year.
| Year | Player | Country | Bracelets | Final Tables | Cashes | Price USD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | Daniel Negreanu |  |
1 | 5 | 6 | 346.280 |
| 2005 | Allen Cunningham |  |
1 | 4 | 5 | 1.006.935 |
| 2006 | Jeff Madsen | |
2 | 4 | 4 | 1.467.852 |
| 2007 | Tom Schneider | |
2 | 3 | 3 | 416.829 |
| 2008 | Erick Lindgren | |
1 | 3 | 5 | 1.348.528 |
| 2009 | Jeff Lisandro |  |
3 | 4 | 6 | 807.521 |
| 2010 | Frank Kassela | |
2 | 3 | 6 | 1.255.314 |
| 2011 | Ben Lamb | |
1 | 4 | 5 | 5.352.970 |
| 2012 | Greg Merson | |
2 | 2 | 4 | 9.755.180 |
| 2013 | Daniel Negreanu | |
2 | 4 | 10 | 2.214.304 |
| 2014 | George Danzer |  |
3 | 5 | 10 | 878.993 |
| 2015 | Mike Gorodinsky | |
1 | 3 | 8 | 1.766.796 |
| 2016 | Jason Mercier | |
2 | 4 | 11 | 960.424 |
| 2017 | Chris Ferguson | |
1 | 4 | 23 | 428.423 |
| 2018 | Shaun Deeb | |
2 | 4 | 20 | 2.545.623 |
Das WSOP Main Event
As mentioned earlier, the $ 10,000 Main Event is considered the most important tournament in the WSOP, but the real poker boom sparked in 2003 when Chris Moneymaker qualified through a $ 22 million online satellite tournament for the $ 10,000 WSOP Main Event, to win this event and take home $ 2.5 million. Since that day, the numbers exploded yearly at the WSOP as well as online poker.
Since then, thousands of players from all over the world dream of attending the WSOP to compete with the best players from around the world. There are also numerous satellite tournaments every year where players can earn for themselves for a few dollars.
WSOP Variants
There are several events and varieties at the WSOP. Texas No Limit Hold’em, Pot Limit Omaha, Seven Card Stud, H.O.R.S.E and Short Deck Hold’em are played at the WSOP.
Here every poker lover will find something and can compete with the best in the world. Most events have a buy-in in the range of $ 1,000- $ 5,000.
There are also some high-roller events with a buy-in between $ 10,000- $ 50,000. Since 2019, there are also events for small bankrolls below $ 1,000.
