World Series Of Poker

The World Series of Poker or WSOP as it’s more frequently referred to began in 1970 in Las Vegas. Since then it has become the biggest poker event in the world, with the WSOP Main Event being the one event that every professional (and amateur) poker player dreams of winning.

The first Series had just seven players and the winner was decided by vote. Johnny Moss, known as ‘The Grand Old Man of Poker’ was the fortunate one in the first Series, being elected by his fellow players for the Champion title, winning a silver trophy and $30,000. The story goes (possibly fictional!) that every one of the players when asked to vote for the best player voted for themselves! It was only when the players were asked to vote for the second best player that Moss emerged victorious. The format obviously needed to be changed and so it was for the next Series in 1971, where they employed the freezeout tournament structure that is still utilised in the competition today – and Johnny Moss won that one too! The freezeout structure made the event far more exciting and as the years have gone by the field sizes have grown, as have the prizes. More events have been added in a wider range of poker games, but players still gravitate towards the Main Event – and the reasons for this are clear: the Main Event has a $10,000 buy-in and the winner is awarded a huge cash prize and is crowned World Champion.

The joy of the World Series is that the event of online poker has enabled everyday amateur players to win seats in the tournament – Chris Moneymaker won the Main Event after winning his seat through a $39 satellite, winning himself a cool $2,500,000!!!!! Due to the fact that amateurs can enter in this way the event has grown massively and in 2008 there were 6,844 entrants, with the winner of the Main Event, Peter Eastgate winning $9,152,416. The Main Event started on July 3rd and reached the final table of nine players on July 14th. The final table was delayed until November to allow ESPN to broadcast the event. All players were paid ninth place prize money ($900,670) in July with the remaining prize pool distributed at the end of game in November. The lowest payouts of the game are more than double the buy-in ($21,230) of $10,000, compared to $10,616 in 2006.

The 2009 Main Event, while not over until November, saw 2008 Champion Peter Eastman making a strong defence of his title, finishing in 78th place. Nine players remain from the 6,494 entrants that started the Event on July 3rd.

So what kind of strategy does one employ if they are lucky enough to get a seat at the World Series of Poker? Current world champion Peter Eastman says that the strategy that he used to win the 2008 Main Event was to not have a pre-tournament strategy! There are so many unknown variables such as quality of cards drawn, and such an abundance of players with hugely differing emotional states, it is difficult to have a pre-determined strategy. He does say that the key to playing in a long and hard tournament like the WSOP is to find the balance between accumulation of chips and maintaining your chip stack, and stay relaxed especially as the money increases.

If you fancy winning a seat at the WSOP main event then VC Poker offers you the chance to win a place at the main table via satellite tournaments online, buy ins from just $0.84!