The Summer of Sports is when many of sports' biggest events take place during the three months when the weather is at its warmest. Every four years, it's the Summer Olympics, and between that quadrennium it's the FIFA World Cup...both events that stop the world. For tennis fans, the year's last three Grand Slams take place, with the biggest one Wimbledon taking place between the French and U.S. Opens. It's also the case for golf, with the U.S. Open, The Open Championship in Britain and the PGA Championship all taking place over the summer. The biggest annual race in cycling and arguably sports' toughest and most-enduring test, the Tour de France, takes place in Europe. And in America, there's the climax of the NBA and NHL seasons and horse racing's Triple Crown.
It's also during the hottest season of the year that the biggest event in the world of card sports and gaming take place, and fittingly enough it takes place in that desert oasis & adult playground known as Las Vegas, NV. While fans were busy following the NBA and NHL playoffs, the World Series of Poker commenced its month & a half-long festival of tournaments as it marks its 45th anniversary this year. Even with events that have happened to the sport in recent years after the game's boom in the early & mid 2000's, the WSOP is bigger than ever with more events and prize money at stake.
And just wrapped up last week is the bulk of what is the biggest in the slate of 68 events of various types of what is referred to as "poker's version of Woodstock"...the $10,000 No-Limit Texas Hold 'Em World Championship. The November Nine final table was determined in the early hours of Wednesday morning, July 15th, and when those players reconvene, a financial windfall awaits the player who emerges victorious when all the cards are dealt and the chips fall in one man's hands.
And just wrapped up last week is the bulk of what is the biggest in the slate of 68 events of various types of what is referred to as "poker's version of Woodstock"...the $10,000 No-Limit Texas Hold 'Em World Championship. The November Nine final table was determined in the early hours of Wednesday morning, July 15th, and when those players reconvene, a financial windfall awaits the player who emerges victorious when all the cards are dealt and the chips fall in one man's hands.
In 1970, gambling icon and mob boss Benny Binion gathered together seven of poker's best-known players to his Horseshoe Casino along Fremont Street in downtown Las Vegas for a single invitational tournament. But little did Binion & those players know at the time that their little get together would ultimately rise to becoming one of the year's biggest pop culture events and an event that has brought a relatively obscure sport into becoming one of America's favorite leisure activities.
HISTORY
The World Series of Poker made its official debut in 1970, but its origins can be stretched back two decades earlier, when in summer 1949 a gambler named Nick "The Greek" Dandolks approached Binion with a rather unusual request. His offer: a high-stakes poker marathon, and the match pitted Nick the Greek against legendary Johnny Moss, and with a stipulation that the game would be played in the view of the gambling-mad public in Las Vegas. Five months after they began play (with breaks only for sleep and food), the two men played just about every form of poker possible, and in the end Moss won the big game and $2 million.
Inspired by the public who watched their heads-up match with the same kind of passion that sports fans would have at sporting venues, Binion came up with an idea to recreate that atmosphere and excitement by bringing together poker's best to see who is the best. After attending an invitational poker event in Reno that had a slew of tournaments with various forms of the game, he devised a plan to have a series of cash games featuring 5- and 7-card stud, 2-7 low-ball draw, razz and of course Texas hold 'em.
When it began in 1970, it had a set start and stop time and the winner was simply determined by the players via secret ballot rather than be played all the way down to just one player. After Johnny Moss was elected champion by his fellow players that first year and received a silver cup as his first prize, the freeze-out format was initiated at next year's Main Event - players eliminated one by one and the last man standing with all the chips in possession takes home the spoils. Moss again won the title and collected a rather meager $30,000. In '72, Amarillo Slim Preston won the title and was the first winner to receive considerable national media attention...thus WSOP began its rise to stardom.
The '70s also saw "Texas Dolly," Doyle Brunson win back-to-back titles with the same final hand of 10-2, which now bears his name...even in age 82 and 4 decades after his 1st title, Brunson still plays at the WSOP as its elder statesman. Also that decade, new events such as 5-card stud were added, as well as the prize every poker player covets - a WSOP bracelet. By the '80s, the tournament - which had 52 entrants in 1982, slowly began to grow with the addition of preliminary competitions with low buy-ins, known as satellites, offering any player and skill a chance to win their way to Las Vegas...as many as 2,100 entered the entire competition in '87; by then two amateurs had already won the title.
The 1988 tournament would become a milestone in two ways. It would mark the last time, to date, that a player had won back to back world titles when Johnny Chan beat Erik Seidel heads-up. Ten years later, that final battle would serve as the basis for the movie Rounders starring Matt Damon, which helped expose poker to a silver screen audience for the first time. The next year saw Phil Hellmuth prevent a Chan three-peat when he became the youngest-ever M.E. champion at the time at age 24. It is among a record 14 WSOP bracelets the "Poker Brat" (nicknamed as such for his John McEnroe-esque behavior at the table) has collected in his 26 years of competing on the big stage, which also includes the 2012 WSOP Europe M.E. win and a record number of cashes & final tables.
The 1988 tournament would become a milestone in two ways. It would mark the last time, to date, that a player had won back to back world titles when Johnny Chan beat Erik Seidel heads-up. Ten years later, that final battle would serve as the basis for the movie Rounders starring Matt Damon, which helped expose poker to a silver screen audience for the first time. The next year saw Phil Hellmuth prevent a Chan three-peat when he became the youngest-ever M.E. champion at the time at age 24. It is among a record 14 WSOP bracelets the "Poker Brat" (nicknamed as such for his John McEnroe-esque behavior at the table) has collected in his 26 years of competing on the big stage, which also includes the 2012 WSOP Europe M.E. win and a record number of cashes & final tables.
There's also the tale of Stu "The Kid" Unger, who burst onto the scene in 1980 as a brash, 24 year-old rookie who went heads-up with Doyle Brunson as the legend looked to join Johnny Moss as 3-time champ. But the upstart got the best of the duel, as he nailed an A-2-3-4-5 straight, known as "the wheel," in the last hand for the first of back-to-back titles. But Unger's crowning moment came 17 years later...three years after a 45 year-old George Foreman regained the heavyweight title, a 44 year-old Unger was again going heads-up for a unlikely 3rd title. When his opponent had the best pair after the final flop of A-5-3, the vet went all-in with A-4, and just as it was in 1980, he got a 2 to become champion again. It was his last WSOP final table, as the recurring alcoholic passed away a year later.
Then, there was 2003, when the WSOP became part of America's sports television diet when ESPN decided to double down and turn it from just a novelty event into something big. Being inspired by seeing the World Poker Tour introduce lipstick-style cameras to reveal to viewers the players' hole cards on the main table, the Series was taken to a new level with event-style coverage of both the featured table and outer tables, plus strategy too. In the end, the event turned a relative unknown to casual viewers, amateur Chris Moneymaker, into a bonafide star when he beat veteran Sam Farha heads-up in the final showdown to claim the $2.5 million jackpot. It was the culmination of a true rags to riches story that changed the game and reminded folks of just how unique it is: anyone can win.
The 2003 event saw 839 players at the start line, but after enormous response to that year's event, 2,576 players - triple the amount of '03 - entered the 2004 Main Event. The winners' cut of the prize money that year was doubled to $5,000,000 when Greg Raymer dominated the final table to win the title (it took the Fossil Man only 7 hands to dispose of runner-up David Williams heads-up). Both champs entered the Main Event by winning their way through satellite tournaments conducted by the online card room PokerStars, which made it possible for everyday novice players to not only compete with their experienced card-room veterans but also win the whole thing too.
It was in this backdrop that Harrah's Entertainment acquired the WSOP from the Binion family that year, and ultimately moved the event from the cramped Horseshoe downtown to its now-Caesars Entertainment network of resorts and casinos down the road in and around the Vegas Strip to help accommodate the thousands who go to and attend the event. After Joe Hachem outlasted all others to take the 2005 crown with $7.5 million, in '06 a record 8,773 entrants came the Sin City for the largest single tournament ever and Jamie Gold took home the biggest M.E. winner's check in WSOP history at $12 million, among a total purse of over $156 million over the entire tournament.
It was in this backdrop that Harrah's Entertainment acquired the WSOP from the Binion family that year, and ultimately moved the event from the cramped Horseshoe downtown to its now-Caesars Entertainment network of resorts and casinos down the road in and around the Vegas Strip to help accommodate the thousands who go to and attend the event. After Joe Hachem outlasted all others to take the 2005 crown with $7.5 million, in '06 a record 8,773 entrants came the Sin City for the largest single tournament ever and Jamie Gold took home the biggest M.E. winner's check in WSOP history at $12 million, among a total purse of over $156 million over the entire tournament.
But that would be the apex of poker mania, as shortly after federal law was passed by Congress and signed by the Bush administration that regulated online poker and other online gambling in the U.S., which led to online poker sites leaving the U.S. market and in 2011 having their domains seized by the big wigs for federal bank fraud and money laundering. As a result of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, the '07 Main Event had a drop-off in both participants and prize money due to online poker sites being barred from direct entry for its players, and giving the crown to two-year vet Jerry Yang, who qualified the old-fashioned way: a satellite tournament in Southern California.
Desperate to regain its footing, the Main Event Final Table as it is known now began the next year, when after the full field of 6,844 entries had whittled down to its final competitors in the heat of the summer, play was put into recess when the 10th player gone out. When it resumed on Nov. 9, the November Nine was born which allowed ESPN to do its entire coverage of the '08 Series without the M.E. winner being determined beforehand, to make possible a broadcast done either same-day or on a quick turnaround and to up the anticipation. In the first N9 Final Table, Peter Eastgate took the crown and $9 million, but it wasn't the year's most memorable moment - a memorable bad beat took place earlier in the Series when poker's best-possible hand, a Royal Flush (suited A-K-Q-J-10), beat a four-of-a-kind set of aces, which was a 1:2.7 billion chance in terms of odds of it happening.
POKER PRIMER...
Poker is among the many games that those who to casinos in America and around the world can instantly spot when they're on the casino floor. Of course, the WSOP's popularity helped poker become a popular party game in houses across America. And for a time, poker was the most-watched sport on cable TV outside of football and NASCAR.
The game's origins are as checkered as the certain card combinations a player can get with his two down cards, but it's thought that card decks with "face cards" were developed in France and later brought across the pond. American poker began along the Mississippi River and began to spread across the country: from the California gold rush to soldiers in the North and South playing it when they weren't battling each other during the Civil War. Nowadays, upwards of 100 million players worldwide of various backgrounds and skills put their luck on the line on the felt table with a poker set.
There are various forms of poker that exist in all shapes & sizes, but only a handful of them are played on the biggest stage the game can offer: the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas every summer.
- First, there's the game that turned America poker crazy: Texas Hold 'Em, which is sometimes referred to as "The Cadillac of Poker." Each player gets dealt two down cards, followed by the first round of betting as they decide whether if they're in or out. Then comes five community cards with the three-card flop, the 4th card "turn" and 5th card "river", with betting rounds after each. In the end, the best five-card combination wins the hand and takes the pot, or it can be won early if all remaining players fold their hands. And in the No-Limit variation used in the Main Event, players can go all-in at any time and bet what they have; restrictions on how much is wagered are placed in the limit & pot-limit games.
- Second comes Omaha...it's more than just Peyton Manning's receiver call and the largest city in Nebraska (and where our friends Laura & Brandon from RW St. Thomas call home), it's also a larger variation of Hold 'Em, only this one sees each player dealt four cards instead of two. It also follows in T.E.H. with betting scheduled before and around the same five-card flop/turn/river community card group. But when the players reveal their cards, they must use only two of the four cards to use with three of the community cards to form the best hand; the best one takes the pot.
- Another game is Seven Card Stud, where each player is dealt three cards: the first two face down and the third face up for all to see. After a first betting round, the next three cards are delivered face-up with betting rounds in between. The seventh and last card is delivered to players face down and just as it is in the other games, players use their two cards with those available to form the best hand, and again, the best one wins the pot.
- There's the more complicated ones like Razz, which is a variant of 7-card stud where the low hand wins and where a 2-3-4-5-7 is its royal flush. And there's Lowball, which is like 5-card draw and low hand wins, and where flushes and straights do count as high hands (2-3-4-5-7 off suit is its best hand).
Also, there is a dealer button, a white disc that moves clockwise around the table after every hand. The player located to the left of the button is required to make a "small blind" bet, which is 1/2 of the lower limit bet. The player seated to his left must then post a "big blind" bet, which is equal to the lower limit bet. And when limits on how much a minimum bet is made increased, so does the size of those bets as well, and often times if players in front of him call those bets, the last player can simply just check and receive the flop without betting too.
And how are the hands ranked in terms of their importance? As mentioned earlier, the best hand possible, or the so-called "Mack Daddy" of poker, is a royal flush - an ace-high straight flush whose odds are as rare as most other feats in sports. Then there's a straight flush, the other aforementioned four-of-a-kind, a full house (3 of a kind & pair, decided Chris Moneymaker's '03 win), a flush (any 5 cards of same suit), a straight (5 cards in sequence), three of a kind, two pair, one pair and high card.
NEED TO KNOW
The World Series of Poker is the world's largest, most lucrative and most prestigious gaming event, and the longest-running tournament in poker. The format is much like an Olympics or a Grand Slam tennis event: it's a series of poker tournaments, not just one tourney, that are all played until one player is left with all the chips and all the glory, and a cash prize that goes along with it as well.
Last year, 82,360 entrants from 110 countries descended upon Las Vegas and the Rio Hotel & Casino on the outskirts of the Strip to play for $227 million in prize money in over 50 different tournaments of various forms & sizes. This year, the 2015 event kicked off on Wednesday, May 27th, two days after the Memorial Day holiday weekend, with the first of 68 events to determine 67 bracelets that were awarded until July 15, when play was suspended upon the determination of the Main Event's November Nine final table.
For new additions to this year's WSOP, 11 new events debuted at the Rio, including a Colossus NLH two-day event with a $565 buy-in, a $5 million prize pool and thousands of players; and a new online-only bracelet event for WSOP.com players. Also, starting chips were increased by as much as 66% for all events with a sub-$10K buy-in, including 25,000 chips for $5K events.
When the WSOP took place at the Horseshoe next to the Fremont Street Experience, space was cramped when it came to accommodate the 2500 entrants in '04, and when it moved down to the Rio the next year it certainly made things easy for organizers. The Rio convention center's three ballrooms - Pavilion, Brasilia and Amazon - are all combined to make for 115,000 square feet of gaming space to accommodate about 450 poker tables that hosts all the action.
Like golf, there are both starting times and separate flights to accommodate the large numbers of players taking part in the tournament. The standard start times for most events are either 12 noon or 4PM, though some events start as early as 10AM in the morning or as late as 6PM. Event play on certain days can stretch out to as long as 12:45AM to 2AM the next morning, complete with five breaks lasting either 20-minutes and a 90-minute break for dinner. For multi-day events south of the Main Event, play is adjourned for the night until 1-2PM the next day until a winner is determined.
As mentioned earlier, the WSOP has become one of television's most popular annual sports specials, but it hasn't always been this way. Early shows back in the '70s and '80s were just one-hour edited specials of the main event that aired well after the champion was determined. In the '90s, poker playing actors, pro players and the tournament director began being used as commentators, and shortly thereafter player interviews and recaps were added. Of course, 2003 was the tipping point for the WSOP and poker on TV with pocket cams, expanded tournament coverage and a move to event-style live coverage that helped the event become a hit with viewers.
And as the reach of poker has increased, so has Madison Avenue's interest in its biggest event. WSOP-branded chip sets, playing cards, video and hand-held games and even lotto scratchers have made this summer & fall event a year-round brand, forking in an extra million dollars to Caesars. The WSOP franchise itself has also increased to include continental events in Europe, Asia and Africa, recognizing the global reach of poker that has transpired because of both its biggest event and the World Poker Tour.
THE MAIN EVENT...AND IT'S NOT JUST HOLD 'EM
When the World Series entered its second year in 1972, the mold was set for the one event that outweighs all others in terms of its standing. What started out with just a $5,000 buy-in was doubled in '73 and the Main Event as we know it was born: the $10,000 No-Limit Texas Hold 'Em World Championship tournament. The one who is left standing at the end of it all wins the largest 1st place prize check - last year it was $10 million - and a gold-plated WSOP bracelet, but they also their picture being placed at Binion's in downtown, fame and fortune of course, and that unofficial title of World Champion.
For there, the ladder reason of a world champ crowned in the main event might not resonate with all poker aficionados due to the no limit game not utilizing the entire skills of an all-around player that a pot-limit format would have. With that reason in mind, since 2002 a 5-game event called H.O.R.S.E. has been held, with Hold 'Em, Omaha, Razz, Seven Card Stud and a 7-card variant with Eight or better. Four years later, a $50,000 tournament was introduced in that format, and in 2010 it was replaced with The Poker Players' Championship with an expanded 8-game format with 2-7 triple draw and both limit Hold 'Em and pot-limit Omaha joining the established lineup.
As the form of poker that grabbed the attention of mainstream America, most of the focus of course is on Texas Hold 'Em, and indeed half of the schedule in recent years is of that game. But this is, after all, a World Series, and when you escape the Vegas heat to attend a WSOP event during the summer before the Main Event, you'll find this is the Olympics of card sports. As mentioned earlier, this year's WSOP consists of 68 events and not only consists of THE events but also Omaha hold'em, Seven-card stud and lowball variants, plus the aforementioned H.O.R.S.E., P.P.C. and S.H.O.E. Those games which are popular on other casino floors have also been played at one time or another at the 'Series, including Chinese poker, five-card stud and countless others.
There is also a notable, special event that brings things into perspective amidst the excitement of poker's biggest event. In 2011 the WSOP and Cirque de Soleil founder, Guy Laliberté, began The Big One for One Drop, a charity fundraising tournament with a $1 million buy-in and 11% of all money being donated to Guy's charity, The One Drop Foundation. In the end, the Magician, Antonio Esfandiari, outlasted Hellmuth and WPT host Mike Sexton, among others, to take the largest-ever WSOP first prize check of $18.3 million, exceeding Jamie Gold's $12 million check for winning the '06 ME. It's become a part of the WSOP since, and others have donated a cut of their winnings to help those in need. But the true winners are those who help to fight the battle against poverty around the world in supporting access to clean water and helping raise awareness of the need to mobilize and ensure safe water is available to everyone around the world.
And since 2004, a Player of the Year award has been given to the player collecting the most points in all of the Open events at the 'Series (not counting Seniors, Ladies and Casino Employees events) winning the honors. First, all events except for the Main Event and the H.O.R.S.E./P.P.C. events were counted towards the award, but recently a scoring system by estimate of field sizes and buy-ins has determined the award, which has been won two times by Kid Poker, Daniel Negreanu.
All the live play has concluded in Las Vegas and all the players have gone home from the Rio, and now all that's left is for the TV coverage on ESPN to begin when many sports' fans attention is fixated on football. For a few hours at least, those who are tired of the same three sports being the focus during the fall have an alternative when the best players in poker battle it out for the greatest prize in the game: a World Series of Poker bracelet. It was first awarded in 1976 to every winner of a WSOP event, whether it would be the main event or not, and over 1,100 of them have been awarded to poker's best, half to the 170 players who've won two or more.
Though the designers of it have changed hands a bit in recent years, the prestige of it hasn't changed, even with changes in the landscape that have transformed poker's most coveted festival into one of America's most popular sports events, Come November, one of the last nine players who comprise this year's final table will leave Las Vegas with over $10 million and the honor of being the player who wins the world title of the World Series of Poker...the holy grail of gaming.
For more on the World Series of Poker, check out the WSOP Official Guidebook from Cardoza Publishing, which features a look at the event's history, plus primers on playing in the big show, the game of poker itself and strategy of how to win tournaments, if you're strong enough to handle the big stage on the bright lights. Log on to CardozaBooks.com to order your copy.
Now, I want to mention a few people that I'm friends with, both personally and socially, who have a great interest in poker and would be very much interested in this article on their biggest event.
- First, two people who I know well from going to school with here in the Bay Area - Carlo and Tony (I'm keeping their surnames anonymous) who both play poker regularly. The former regularly plays at the local card room here in Silicon Valley - Bay 101 near the SJC airport, while the ladder played in last year's WSOP and also met '98 champ Scotty Nguyen and "The Grinder," Mike Mizrachi.
- And second, two poker-playing members of Team MTV: Real World Vegas XII alum Trishelle - who's also done some TV work on World and Heartland Poker Tours, and Brandon from Are You The One? Season 2, who calls Vegas home and one night while he was winning a $15,000 poker tourney at the Aria shortly after his AYTO season ended, he ran into, of all people, Jack Black. Lucky Brandon.
Be sure to follow the DC Social Network as I'm staying busy both here on DCBLOG and across my social media platforms this summer, with the focus for now being on the Summer of Sports.
- First, follow my dedicated live tweet hub, DCNOW at Twitter @DC408DxNow. We've devoted a vast majority of live tweets to sports' biggest events and greatest moments too many to mention since May 2nd, and there's still more ahead. The Pan Am Games are ongoing in Toronto, Ronda Rousey's anticipated return to the UFC octagon is next weekend, and NFL training camp will begin soon as well. In addition to event tweets, as announced this week I'm adding my first non-MTV cable show to my slate in HBO's NFL-themed docu-series Hard Knocks, which this year features the Houston Texans.
- DCBLOG has been complementing those live tweets with extensive and unique blog coverage of all things sports right here all summer, taking you beyond the headlines and highlights for a unique look at sports from my press box. We've covered soccer, golf, boxing, Wimbledon and the Tour de France here so far this summer and if you haven't checked out those posts be sure check them out here. Next week, while training camp and media days in football take place, we'll be heading down under to focus on the breathtaking sport of Aussie Rules football...trust us, it's not your father's form of football.
- For MTV fans, my live show tweets are back with new seasons of Catfish and Teen Mom, plus next week, the return of America's Best Dance Crew and next month's VMA's. That's only a warm-up for the fall as we'll again be covering a new cycle of the MTV Trifecta starting with Season 3 of Are You The One? from Hawaii. We'll be looking back on last season in PR on a special DC SocialPulse coming shortly to be followed by a full cast preview. And if things go according to plan, I have a special DC FORUM post that, if you're a RW fan, you do not want to miss...stay tuned of course.
- Also ahead, my fellow sports/MTV fan, webcast host and recent college grad Andrew Kirk will have a special Big Time Reality TV webcast on his YouTube where he'll offering his thoughts on the recent Trifecta cycle, answering questions submitted by yours truly. Be sure to follow the both of us, Brian Cohen, Ali Lasher and Reality Radio as we'll be covering the MTV Trifecta both on our respective blogs and on their webcasts when the buzz for AYTO3 begins soon, plus Big Brother 17 as well.
- And as always, don't forget to follow my primary Twitter handle @DC408Dxtr, my Instagram account also at the same handle, and at Tumblr at dc408dxtr.tumblr.com. I'm open for you to chat with me anytime on Twitter, so if you want to talk sports, MTV or pop culture, I'm here for you.
Again, thanks for reading this fun look at the pop culture event known as the World Series of Poker, part of our Summer of Sports. Make sure to join me this weekend on DCNOW for two boxing cards and a UFC bantamweight title clash, along with other things too. Until we talk again here next week, thanks for reading, have fun and good luck.
- I AM DC
Bibliography: WSOP.com, WPT.com, World Series of Poker Official Guidebook, Wikipedia: World Series of Poker and Poker boom
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