The World Series of Poker (WSOP) is the World Championships for poker players held annually in Las Vegas and attracts the cream of poker players from across the globe - both hardened professionals and aspiring amateurs.

	The Idea

The first World Series of Poker was held in 1970 - organised by Benny Binion, the owner of Binion's Horseshoe Casino in Las Vegas. In fact, its inspiration came from years earlier when (in 1949) famous gambler Nicholas "Nick the Greek" Dandolos approached Benny Binion with an unusual request - to challenge the best in a high-stakes poker marathon. So Binion set up a match between Dandolos and Johnny Moss. The game was played in full public view with big crowds gathering outside the casino every day to watch the game - which lasted an incredible five months. The two men played every form of poker imaginable and Moss is eventually reported to have won towards $4 million. When the Greek lost his last pot, he uttered the now-famous line, "Mr. Moss, I have to let you go."

In 1969, some of the biggest bookmakers and the top poker players were invited to the Holiday Inn in Reno, Nevada. The purpose was to promote the hotel by organizing the first ever major poker tournament. The poker tournament was a re-buy tournament and included famous players such as Doyle Brunson, "Amarillo Slim" Preston and Johnny Moss.

The event lasted for one week and Benny and Jack Binion were impressed with the tournament and acquired the rights to it when the Holiday Inn was sold next year. In 1970 Benny Binion gathered together a group of highly skilled poker players from around the United States. His plan was to have them play each other in a public setting in order to determine which of them the best poker player in the world was. Benny Binion called his event the "World Series of Poker".

	The Early Days

That first year, 35 players entered the tournament and played five different poker variations. That year the final winner was decided by a vote held amongst the players and celebrated poker legend Johnny Moss was crowned the very first World Champion of Poker. This was the only year that a vote was held and starting the following year, the winner was determined by today's format - where everyone plays until 1 player has all the chips…and Moss won again the second year. The third year, Amarillo Slim won the title (the first with a $10,000 buy-in) and gave the WSOP some added publicity by going on talk shows, like Johnny Carson.

During the tournament's initial two years, the Championship Event was the only event held in the series. In 1972, a Five-Card Stud Event was added and, since then, more events have been added each year. In 2005 over 40 events were held (lasting six weeks), including the Championship Event. The types of games played varied from Seven-Card Stud High-Low, Omaha pot-limit, and Texas Hold'em, to tournaments that mixed up all variations.

	Bracelets

All these tournaments have one thing in common - the winner of each event receives a WSOP solid gold bracelet - considered to be the most prestigious prize offered in international poker. To date, Phil Helmuth has won the most bracelets, picking up his 11th piece of jewellery in one of the early events of this year's series. Doyle Brunson and Johnny Chan are kicking at the brat's heels with ten bracelets apiece.

	Poker Explosion

During the 1980s, the popularity of the World Series soared in part because of the introduction of low buy-in "satellites" - which meant people could enter by qualifying rather than paying the main event $10,000 buy-in. Hence in 1982 the tournament drew 52 entrants and just five years later there were 2141 participants.

In the last three years the WSOP has experienced yet another period of huge growth - this time due to the combination of Internet poker and televised poker. The broadcast of the World Series of Poker and the World Poker Tour has motivated millions of people to learn about the game, while the rise of Internet poker has made it much easier for prospective players to enter satellites in an attempt to win their way into the big tournament.

Perhaps the biggest single factor in this latest growth was that the 2003 WSOP champion, Chris Moneymaker, qualified for the $10,000 buy-in main event via one of the many internet satellite tournaments (which cost him just $39) and won a final prize of $2.5 million. The effect was to nearly triple the number of participants between 2003 and 2004 and in the 2005 main event there were a total of 5,619 entries with total prize money of over $50 million! As a result, 2005 winner Joseph Hachem collected $7.5 million prize money (with the top 560 players finishing in the money).

But the boom did not stop their, as last year in 2006; Jamie Gold took away a first prize of $12 million after finishing first of 8,773 players.

Due to the Unlawful Internet Gaming Act, the number of players in the main event is expected to dip this year, but optimists still think the number of players will be large.

From 1970 every WSOP was held at the Binion Horseshoe but 2004 heralded the end of an era and in 2005 it moved to the Harrah's Rio Suite Hotel.