The World Series of Poker is the most renowned and most prestigious poker tournament there is today. It is to poker as the World Cup is to football. The tournament consists of more than 50 different game events. Again, a bracelet plus cash prize is awarded to every event winner.
A player may get more than one bracelet as Phil Helmuth and Johnny Chan did. Helmuth won 11 bracelets and Chan, 10.
In 1968, a casino owner named Benny Binion, conceptualized a tournament consisting of a series of tournaments. These series of tournaments are to serve as some sort of elimination posts. Every tournament winner will be given bracelet as well as a cash prize. Every winner gets to advance to the finals where they are to compete against each other. Although the birth of World Series of Poker was in 1953, this is the structure of the World Series of Poker as we now know and play today.
The World Series of Poker ends in one final or main Texas Hold ‘em event, where players get to compete for the WSOP title and the cash prize that runs in millions of dollars.
Since 1973, events in the World Series of Poker have been filmed. Early filming was not yets as sophisticated as we have today since media technology was still crude.
In the 1990s, ESPN started covering the tournament. Discovery Channel has also aired a feature of the World Series of Poker. The addition of hole cameras has allowed viewers to share in the excitement of the game. Hole cameras allow viewers to see the players’ hole cards and thereby know in advance which players have greater chances at the pot, which players are bluffing, which players are making good limping strategies, and other such information.
Like any ESPN sports coverage, there are also commentators analyzing and commenting the moves of players.
To get a seat at the World Series of Poker, a player has to pay the buy-in as well as the entry fee.
Another way of procuring a WSOP seat without having to pay the buy-in is by winning a poker satellite tournament.
Once you have a seat at the World Series of Poker, you get to play in any its covered events. The events number more than fifty. If you win in an event, you are given a gold WSOP bracelet. You are given a cash prize as well. You may join and win as many events as you like. In the end, however, you need to beat everyone at the Texas Hold ‘em main event if you want to claim the year’s World Series of Poker title and the multi-million dollar-cash prize. This is the World Series of Poker as Benny Binion has designed it to be in 1968.
