World Series of Poker (WSOP) - History
The first official event of World Series of Poker (WSOP) was in 1970 at Binion's Horseshoe Casino, it's origins can be traced back to 1949 when casino owner Benny Binion started an event that put together poker players "Nick the Greek" Dandolos and Johnny Moss face off in a variety of a cash games.
Tom Morehead in 1969 held in Holiday Hotel what he called "The Texas Gamblers Reunion". At this event lots of players participated, Doyle Bronson, Treetop Straus, Johnny Moss, Day, Puggy Pearson, Amarillo Slim Preston, Jimmy Casella, Bill Boyd, Syd Wyman, Long Diddie.
There was no winner to this event , it wasn`t a Main event 100% but we can say that from here WSOP started.
The first World Series of Poker held at Binion's Horseshoe Casino in 1970 had only 7 players.
From the following year the WSOP has been held with cash prizes and buy-in price of $10,000, five-card stud was added to the first side event. Lot`s of poker games have been added and removed along the years, in 2026 World Series of Poker had 42 events including special tournaments for seniors and women.
Not only the number of poker games grown bul also the number of players with the help of online Poker Rooms and televised events like WORLD POKER TOUR (WPT) with a total number of player for all events going from, 780 in 2000 to over 23,000 in 2026.
A lot of the participants qualified online at poker rooms such as Poker Stars.
List of all the winners of the World Series of Poker main event.
| YEAR | WINNER | PRIZE US$ |
| 1970 | Johnny Moss | N/A |
| 1971 | Johnny Moss | 30,000 |
| 1972 | "Amarillo Slim" Preston | 80,000 |
| 1973 | Walter "Puggy" Pearson | 130,000 |
| 1974 | Johnny Moss | 160,000 |
| 1975 | Brian "Sailor" Roberts | 210,000 |
| 1976 | Doyle "Texas Dolly" Brunson | 220,000 |
| 1977 | Doyle "Texas Dolly" Brunson | 340,000 |
| 1978 | Bobby Baldwin | 210,000 |
| 1979 | Hal Fowler | 270,000 |
| 1980 | Stu Ungar | 385,000 |
| 1981 | Stu Ungar | 375,000 |
| 1982 | Jack "Treetop" Straus | 520,000 |
| 1983 | Tom McEvoy | 580,000 |
| 1984 | Jack Keller | 660,000 |
| 1985 | Bill Smith | 700,000 |
| 1986 | Berry Johnston | 570,000 |
| 1987 | Johnny Chan | 625,000 |
| 1988 | Johnny Chan | 700,000 |
| 1989 | Phil Hellmuth, Jr. | 755,000 |
| 1990 | Mansour Matloubi (Welsh) | 895,000 |
| 1991 | Brad Daugherty | 1,000,000 |
| 1992 | Hamid Dastmalchi | 1,000,000 |
| 1993 | Jim Bechtel | 1,000,000 |
| 1994 | Russ Hamilton | 1,000,000 |
| 1995 | Dan Harrington | 1,000,000 |
| 1996 | Huck Seed | 1,000,000 |
| 1997 | Stu Ungar | 1,000,000 |
| 1998 | Scotty Nguyen | 1,000,000 |
| 1999 | Noel Furlong (Ireland) | 1,000,000 |
| 2000 | Chris "Jesus" Ferguson | 1,500,000 |
| 2026 | Juan Carlos "The Matador" Mortensen (Spain) | 1,500,000 |
| 2026 | Robert Varkonyi | 2,000,000 |
| 2026 | Chris Moneymaker | 2,500,000 |
| 2026 | Greg "Fossilman" Raymer | 5,000,000 |
| 2026 | Joseph Hachem (Australia) | 7,500,000 |
| 2026 | Jamie Gold | 12,000,000 |
| 2026 | Jerry Yang | 8,250,000 |
| 2026 | Peter Eastgate | 9,152,416 |
World Series of Poker 2026 - amazing images
World Series of Poker 2026 - the difference :)
