With the return this week of the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, it's time to check out a roundup of some of the most memorable moments from poker's biggest stage.
In no particular order, these are some of the biggest stories from the long history of the WSOP. What are your favorites? Let us know in the comments below.
1. Amarillo Slim gifted 1972 Main Event
In 1972, the $10,000 Main Event garnered a field of only eight entrants – with half of each player's buy-in financed by Benny Binion to increase publicity surrounding the event. When the second day of play rolled around, only four players remained: Doyle Brunson, Walter 'Puggy' Pearson, Jack Straus, and Thomas 'Amarillo Slim' Preston.
Preston started the day on a short stack, but managed to spin it up to get back into contention. After Straus' exit, Brunson and Pearson made it clear they did not win to the event – citing the media presence and publicity as a deterrent. The three players then struck a deal to allow Preston to win the event while Brunson and Pearson took the cash value of their chips from his prize.
2. Phil Hellmuth wins 1989 Main Event
In 1989, the legend of Phil Hellmuth was born as he became the youngest-ever (at the time) player to win the WSOP Main Event. Hellmuth defeated two-time defending champion Johnny Chan heads-up to claim the bracelet – the first of his record 17 WSOP bracelets.
3. Stu Ungar's back-to-back and comeback wins
Stu Ungar's back-to-back WSOP Main Event wins in 1980 and 1981 solidified his standing as one of the world's best no-limit hold'em players. In 1980, Ungar defeated Doyle Brunson heads-up to claim the victory. Ungar went on to defend his title in 1981, defeating Perry Green.
In 1997, after sixteen years, Ungar won the Main Event for a third time, joining Johnny Moss as the only three-time winners. With the lengthy time gap between his second and third wins, Ungar was dubbed 'The Comeback Kid' by the media.
4. Chris Moneymaker ignites the poker boom
In 2003, Chris Moneymaker changed the poker world forever with his victory in the WSOP Main Event. After earning his seat in the event via an $86 online satellite, Moneymaker – a complete unknown at the time – went on to best the 839-entrant field to claim the title and the top prize of $2,500,000.
Moneymaker's historic run ignited a poker boom which saw the game's popularity explode across the world.
5. Chip Reese's $50,000 HORSE victory
In 2006, a brand new event hit the schedule at the WSOP: the $50,000 HORSE Championship. With a field of 143 entrants comprising the world's top professional players, the event garnered a prize pool of $6,864,000. In the end, David 'Chip' Reese emerged victorious over the field, collecting the top prize of $1,784,640 and his third and final WSOP bracelet.
Following his death in 2007, the WSOP posthumously named the David 'Chip' Reese Memorial Trophy in his honor and now awards it each year to the winner of the Poker Players Championship.
6. ESPN takes over televised coverage
In 1988, ESPN took over the broadcasting rights for the WSOP. While the initial coverage consisted of only the Main Event, ESPN's involvement in subsequent years – most notably from 2003 onwards – would play a large role in the ensuing poker boom.
7. Erik Seidel vs. Johnny Chan
In 1988, the WSOP Main Event came to down to a heads-up battle between defending champion Johnny Chan and Erik Seidel. The final hand of the tournament – made famous in the 1998 movie Rounders – became one of poker's most iconic moments as Chan slow-played a flopped straight and led Seidel right into his trap.
8. Laptop-Gate
In the aftermath of Jonathan Tamayo's victory in the 2024 WSOP Main Event, an outcry of foul play emerged as spectators and players alike took offense to the use of a laptop-based solver during three-handed play. As part of his supporters' rail and coaching squad, Joe McKeehen and Dominik Nitsche apparently conferred with Tamayo several times – between hands – to advise him on overall strategy and hand-to-hand decisions with the help of the laptop-based poker engine.
While much of the issue centered on the optics of the laptop usage, some within the poker community went as far as to label the actions of McKeehen, Nitsche, and Tamayo as outright cheating. In response, the WSOP instituted a major rule change specifically dealing with electronic assistance and coaching.
9. GGPoker purchases WSOP brand
In August of 2024, Caesars Entertainment announced its intention to sell the intellectual property rights of the WSOP to NSUS Group – the parent company and operator of GGPoker.
The deal, which officially closed in late October of the same year, represented a massive shift within the industry.
10. Doyle Brunson's 10-2
In 1976, Doyle Brunson found himself heads-up for the Main Event title against recreational player Jesse Alto. In the deciding hand of the event, Alto's 
had Brunson's 
in a tough spot on the 
flop.
When Alto fired for a pot-sized bet, Brunson moved all-in over the top – only to see the bad news as his opponent quickly called and tabled a better hand. The turn 
improved Brunson to two pair of his own, but Alto still held the lead. On the river 
, however, Brunson made an unlikely full house to snag the pot – and the title – from his opponent.
The following year, Brunson made it to the heads-up portion of play in the Main Event once again. With a sizable chip lead over his opponent Gary Berland, the deciding hand saw Brunson make another full house with 
– again outdrawing his opponent to win the hand.
From then onwards, the hand has affectionately been nicknamed 'The Doyle Brunson' or 'Texas Dolly'.
11. Antonio Esfandiari wins $18M in Big One for One Drop
In 2012, Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte launched the Big One for One Drop poker tournament in collaboration with the WSOP. The $1,000,000 buy-in event withheld a portion of each player's entry fee to donate to the One Drop Foundation – a non-profit charitable organization focused on water initiatives.
Antonio Esfandiari defeated Sam Trickett heads-up to win the inaugural event, claiming the prestigious title and the $18,346,673 top prize. In the video below, Esfandiari and Remko Rinkema look back at the historic victory.
12. Mark Newhouse finishes 9th... again
In 2013, Mark Newhouse reached a pinnacle of poker success: the final table of the WSOP Main Event. While he exited the event in 9th place as the first casualty of the final table, the $733,224 payday surely helped to assuage some of his disappointment.
The following year, Newhouse bought into the Main Event again and fired off the below message to his Twitter/X followers:
Incredibly, Newhouse ended up making it to the final table for a second consecutive year, but in a cruel twist of fate and irony, he finished in 9th place once again.
13. Epic Main Event runs
In 2015, Daniel Negreanu battled his way through 6,420 players and nearly made the final table of the WSOP Main Event. Unfortunately for Negreanu, it wasn't meant to be as his run came to an end just two players shy of the final table.
In 2024, Kristen Foxen had the entire poker community behind her as she rode the Main Event rollercoaster all the way to the final 15 players. Sadly, much like Negreanu, Foxen's run came to an end just before the final table.
In 2003, the year Chris Moneymaker started the poker boom, he sent a young Phil Ivey packing on the final table bubble in one of the worst bad beats in WSOP history. Ivey's elimination remains one of the biggest 'What if?' moments in WSOP history.
14. Daniel 'Jungleman' Cates wins PPC back-to-back
The $50,000 Poker Players Championship (PPC) has long been considered one of the most prestigious events on the WSOP schedule. With nine poker variants in play, the event tests players' skills across a wide variety of games.
In 2021, Daniel 'Jungleman' Cates etched his name into poker history when he defeated a 64-entrant field to claim the PPC title. Then, less than a year later (the 2021 series was held in the fall due to Covid restrictions), Cates returned to defend his title – and defend it he did as he bested the 112-entrant field to score back-to-back PPC victories.
While Cates isn't the only player to have won the event multiple times, he remains the only player to have won the event in consecutive years.
15. Daniel Negreanu ends bracelet drought with PPC win
In 2024, Daniel Negreanu notched his 7th WSOP bracelet win – after enduring more than a decade of close calls and what ifs – with a victory in the $50,000 Poker Players Championship. Up against a stacked field of fellow professionals, Negreanu outlasted the 89-entrant field to put an end to the drought.
16. Barbara Enright's 1995 Main Event final table
Barbara Enright has achieved several 'firsts' in poker. In 1995, she reached the final table of the WSOP Main Event as the first – and only – woman to accomplish the feat. Enright was also the first woman to win two WSOP bracelets (and the first to win three) and the first woman inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame.
Since her final table finish in 1995, several other women have come close – including Gaelle Baumann, Elisabeth Hille, and Kristen Foxen. Notably, Baumann and Hille were eliminated in 10th and 11th places respectively during the WSOP Main Event in 2012.
17. Dan Harrington's back-to-back Main Event final tables
When Dan Harrington entered the 2003 WSOP Main Event, he did so as a former Main Event Champion. With his experience to guide him, Harrington ran deep once again – making it all the way to the final table. Despite his skill, he couldn't outlast Chris Moneymaker and Sammy Farha as he bowed out in third place.
The following year, with the Moneymaker poker boom in full swing, Harrington fought his way through the 2,576-entrant field to reach the final table for a second consecutive year. While he finished in fourth place in 2004, the achievement of making back-to-back Main Event final tables in the modern era is widely considered one of the greatest feats in the series history.
That's our rundown, but with so many great stories in the WSOP's long history there are any number of others worthy of inclusion. What are some of your favorites? Let us know in the comments.
Additional images courtesy of WSOP/Joe Giron/PokerGO/Antonio Abrego.
