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Looking at the World Series of Poker now and what you see is millions of dollars in cash given out to the winners of some of the most prestigious poker events in the world. But it certainly didn't start out like that. It was back in the summer of 1949 that the gambler known as Nicholas "Nick the Greek" Dandolos had an idea to bring together some of the best poker players around for a high stakes poker marathon. He brought this idea to Benny Binion, who was a moonshine making, two-time killer who would eventually go on to open the famed Binion's Horseshoe Casino in 1951.
Binion agreed to set up a match between Dandolos and the legendary poker player Johnny Moss but only with the condition that the game had to played in public view to ward off any complaints of cheating. Over the next five months, these two men played every form of poker only breaking to sleep at night. The winner got an unbelievable $2 million dollars so there was a lot at stake. Moss eventually won that marathon, but over the course of those five months, Binion realized that the crowd that gathered outside of the casino everyday wanted to see this game play out. He was amazed at the attention that this little event attracted.
It wasn't until 1970 that Binion finally decided to again host a group of top poker players in a game such as the one that was played between Dandolos and Moss. It was affectionately called the "World Series of Poker" which is still the name today. It was his goal to see this tournament through to determine who would be called the "World Champion." He brought together some of the best players in the world, and again Johnny Moss came out on top. This time though instead of playing for five months, there was a vote that taken to decide the champion. The following year Binion did it again, but this time, the winner was determined by a freezeout competition in which the players were all eliminated until one player was left. Moss was again crowed the champion.
It was 1972 before the WSOP began to have a following when Amarillo Slim won the title. Over the next few years they started to add more games and eventually added more people to the tournament. In the early 80's Binion introduced preliminary satellites with lower buy-ins to bring in more people. The tournament started to garner more attention and it became the goal of many poker players around the world to eventually compete in the WSOP. Unfortunately Binion died in 1989 but he did have the chance to see it become quite the spectacle, for which he was quite proud. At that point, the tournament was seeing entries of almost 2,500 people which far surpassed his hope for 50 people which was his previous goal when it first started.
Eventually when Binion's Horseshow Casino closed in 2004 the WSOP moved to Harrah's Rio Casino where it now offers the largest group of tournaments played over the course of almost 30 days. Now there are WSOP circuit events held in various casinos around the United States with many more entrants every single year. There are literally tens of thousands of people playing in the WSOP Main Event alone, never mind the other tournaments. Due in part because of online gambling, the WSOP has grown to proportions that were never thought possible before. Now the WSOP televises almost every event and is one of the highest rated sports telecasts on ESPN.
The legacy that Benny Binion has left the poker community is legendary and it has changed the world of poker forever.
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