What Is the World Series of Poker?
The World Series of Poker plays out as the world’s biggest and most famous live poker festival. The WSOP usually takes place in Las Vegas, Nevada every summer, with the Rio Las Vegas hosting the series every year since 2005.
The annual WSOP schedule usually includes more than 80 tournaments, each awarding a coveted WSOP bracelet to the winner. The $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em Championship, aka the Main Event, brings thousands of players to the Rio each year.
When is the World Series of Poker being held this year?
The 2022 World Series of Poker takes place at Bally’s and Paris Las Vegas from May 31 to July 20. After 17 years at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino, the 2022 WSOP makes a highly anticipated and prestigious move to the Las Vegas Strip.
The first-ever WSOP tournament took place in 1970 at the original Horseshoe, so the relocation to Bally’s — soon to be renamed the Horseshoe — brings the event back to its roots. The move also provides the largest tournament capacity in the history of the event. Events this year are being held in more than 200,000 square feet of tournament space across 600 poker tables.
Actor and celebrity poker player Vince Vaughn will serve as the inaugural Master of Ceremonies.
The opening weekend of the 2022 WSOP features a $5 million guaranteed no-limit hold’em event known as “The Housewarming,” with a $500 buy in. A similar event in 2021, called “The Reunion,” featured an impressive 12,973 entrants.
After a few years of changes and abnormal schedules due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the WSOP is back to its traditional summer schedule. The Main Event (a $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em World Championship) takes place around the July 4th holiday.
Other notable events include two no-limit hold’em events per week with multi-million dollar prize pools, as well as a brand-new $1,000 buy-in Million Dollar Bounty event from July 2-4.
The Tournament of Champions culminates the 2022 WSOP tournament with a $1,000,000 freeroll tournament. Any of the qualifying 88 bracelet winners and gold ring winners from the WSOP Circuit are free to compete for a spot at the final table on July 15 and 16, and a chance at some serious prize money.
For the second year, WSOP is partnering with CBS Sports to live stream select events. For additional daily live coverage and streaming, viewers can also log in to watch on PokerGO on a variety of Android, iOS, and smart TV devices.
Poker enthusiasts can join the fun from home with a selection of WSOP online poker games using their desktop computers or the integrated poker app.Poker enthusiasts looking for additional events to enjoy in 2022 can take advantage of a full range of events and games at the WSOP Europe tournament from Oct. 12 through Nov. 3, 2022 at King’s Casino in Rozvadov, Czech Republic.
Past World Series of Poker Winners
The World Series of Poker annually features more than 80 events, with the winner of each tournament awarded an official WSOP bracelet. The World Series of Poker bracelet stands as one of the most coveted prizes in poker, with thousands of players descending on Las Vegas each year for a chance to claim their part of poker history.
| Year | # of Entrants | Winner | First Place Prize |
| 1970 | 7 | Johnny Moss | N/A |
| 1971 | 6 | Johnny Moss | $30,000 |
| 1972 | 8 | Thomas “Amarillo Slim” Preston | $80,000 |
| 1973 | 13 | Walter “Puggy” Pearson | $130,000 |
| 1974 | 16 | Johnny Moss | $160,000 |
| 1975 | 21 | Brian “Sailor” Roberts | $210,000 |
| 1976 | 22 | Doyle Brunson | $220,000 |
| 1977 | 34 | Doyle Brunson | $340,000 |
| 1978 | 42 | Bobby Baldwin | $210,000 |
| 1979 | 54 | Hal Fowler | $270,000 |
| 1980 | 73 | Stu Ungar | $385,000 |
| 1981 | 75 | Stu Ungar | $375,000 |
| 1982 | 104 | Jack Straus | $520,000 |
| 1983 | 108 | Tom McEvoy | $540,000 |
| 1984 | 132 | Jack Keller | $660,000 |
| 1985 | 140 | Bill Smith | $700,000 |
| 1986 | 141 | Berry Johnston | $570,000 |
| 1987 | 152 | Johnny Chan | $625,000 |
| 1988 | 167 | Johnny Chan | $700,000 |
| 1989 | 178 | Phil Hellmuth | $755,000 |
| 1990 | 194 | Mansour Matloubi | $895,000 |
| 1991 | 215 | Brad Daugherty | $1,000,000 |
| 1992 | 201 | Hamid Dastmalchi | $1,000,000 |
| 1993 | 231 | Jim Bechtel | $1,000,000 |
| 1994 | 268 | Russ Hamilton | $1,000,000 |
| 1995 | 273 | Dan Harrington | $1,000,000 |
| 1996 | 295 | Huck Seed | $1,000,000 |
| 1997 | 312 | Stu Ungar | $1,000,000 |
| 1998 | 350 | Scotty Nguyen | $1,000,000 |
| 1999 | 393 | Noel Furlong | $1,000,000 |
| 2000 | 512 | Chris Ferguson | $1,500,000 |
| 2001 | 613 | Juan Carlos Mortensen | $1,500,000 |
| 2002 | 631 | Robert Varkonyi | $2,000,000 |
| 2003 | 839 | Chris Moneymaker | $2,500,000 |
| 2004 | 2,576 | Greg Raymer | $5,000,000 |
| 2005 | 5,619 | Joe Hachem | $7,500,000 |
| 2006 | 8,773 | Jamie Gold | $12,000,000 |
| 2007 | 6,358 | Jerry Yang | $8,250,000 |
| 2008 | 6,844 | Peter Eastgate | $9,152,416 |
| 2009 | 6,494 | Joe Cada | $8,547,042 |
| 2010 | 7,319 | Jonathan Duhamel | $8,944,310 |
| 2011 | 6,865 | Pius Heinz | $8,715,638 |
| 2012 | 6,598 | Greg Merson | $8,531,853 |
| 2013 | 6,532 | Ryan Riess | $8,361,570 |
| 2014 | 6,683 | Martin Jacobson | $10,000,000 |
| 2015 | 6,420 | Joe McKeehen | $7,683,346 |
| 2016 | 6,737 | Qui Nguyen | $8,005,310 |
| 2017 | 7,221 | Scott Blumstein | $8,150,000 |
| 2018 | 7,874 | John Cynn | $8,800,000 |
| 2019 | 8,569 | Hossein Ensan | $10,000,000 |
| 2020 | 1,379 | Damian Salas | $2,550,969 |
| 2021 | 6,550 | Koray Aldemir | $8,000,000 |
The $10,000 Main Event plays out as the centerpiece tournament of each WSOP. Winners of the Main Event live on in poker lore forever, with their likeness adorning banners that hang in the rafters of the Rio Convention Center during the series.
Visitors to the 2022 WSOP will see the images of past champions on those banners. Chris Moneymaker (2003 Main Event champion) made perhaps the most famous championship run in poker history at the 2003 Main Event, vaulting poker into the mainstream and collecting a $2.5 million payday in the process.
Jamie Gold (2006) won the biggest prize ever awarded in the Main Event, topping a field of 8,773 players to earn $12 million.
Other notable Main Event champions include Doyle Brunson (1976 and 1977), Johnny Chan (1987 and 1988), Phil Hellmuth (1989), Scotty Nguyen (1998), and Joe Cada (2009).
Hossein Ensan (2019) took down the most recent live WSOP, prevailing over a field of 8,569 players to win $10 million at the 2019 series.
World Series of Poker Biggest Career Earners
While the Main Event persists as the most notable WSOP tournament, many of poker’s greatest players built their reputations from consistent excellence across all series events.
| Place | Player Name | Career WSOP Earnings |
| 1 | Antonio Esfandiari | $21,917,218 |
| 2 | Daniel Negreanu | $18,558,686 |
| 3 | Daniel Colman | $17,413,655 |
| 4 | Phil Hellmuth | $14,946,233 |
| 5 | Jonathan Duhamel | $14,647,089 |
| 6 | Justin Bonomo | $13,927,513 |
| 7 | Joe Cada | $13,609,478 |
| 8 | Elton Tsang | $12,411,124 |
| 9 | Jamie Gold | $12,199,023 |
| 10 | Martin Jacobson | $12,144,012 |
Poker Hall of Famer and iconic personality Phil Hellmuth holds the all-time record for WSOP bracelets won, with 15 to his credit coming into this year’s series. Three other poker legends follow Hellmuth on that list with ten bracelets each, including Phil Ivey, Doyle Brunson, and Johnny Chan.
Hellmuth sits at No. 4 on the all-time WSOP earnings list, with $15,034,240 in career cashes at the series. Antonio Esfandiari is the all-time WSOP money leader, with $21,917,460 in WSOP earnings.
Following Esfandiari on that list are Daniel Negreanu ($18,705,140) and Dan Coleman ($17,413,780). The three players that top the WSOP career earnings list all claim top-two finishes in the $1 million buy-in Big One for One Drop tournament. That event occasionally runs at the WSOP and produces some of the biggest prizes in tournament poker history.
History of the World Series of Poker
The first official World Series of Poker ran in 1970, consisting of a series of cash games that included multiple poker variants. The first lineal WSOP Main Event champion, Johnny Moss, was voted as the winner by the players in the game.
The series switched to an all-tournament format in 1971, and by 1972 the familiar $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em Championship was in place as the series Main Event. The WSOP grew to include 12 total bracelet events by the end of the decade in 1979.
Attendance for the Main Event steadily grew throughout the 1980s, and by the 1991 WSOP, the first-place prize for the Main Event grew to $1 million.
The 2003 Main Event launched the modern era of poker. ESPN expanded its coverage of the tournament to include a hole card camera for the first time, allowing viewers at home to see what the players were holding.
Tennessee accountant Chris Moneymaker emerged as the champion from the biggest Main Event field to date in 2003, winning $2.5 million in an iconic tournament run. The WSOP exploded in popularity after that.
The 2006 Main Event drew 8,773 players and awarded $12 million to the winner, both of which still stand as all-time WSOP records.
The 2019 Main Event proved the viability of the WSOP more than 15 years after Moneymaker’s legendary win. A total of 8,569 players registered for the Main Event, and the series included 90 bracelet events.
WSOP Play Format
The modern-era World Series of Poker generally runs for around seven weeks, with most of the tournaments on the schedule playing out before the beginning of the Main Event.
Most tournaments at the WSOP play as No-Limit Hold’em events, but the overall WSOP schedule includes nearly every imaginable form of poker. Stud, triple draw, mixed-game tournaments, Pot-Limit Omaha, and many other poker variants are played each year at the WSOP.
The selection of games presented at the WSOP draws the world’s best players across a number of poker variants to Las Vegas. The $50,000 Poker Players Championship plays as a tournament with a rotating mix of eight different games.
The Poker Players Championship is considered by some as the most prestigious event on the WSOP schedule. The $10,000 Main Event still persists as the most famous poker tournament in the world, however, with ESPN extensively covering the event each year.
