Hi, I’m nic01ae. An interesting tournament. Started with 200,000 players. The world’s largest poker site has been setting new standards and smashing records since 2001. One of the biggest achievements of all however came in 2009 when a staggering 149,196 players took part in the same tournament, setting a new World Record. 200,000 players, for a buy-in of just $1!
But my play was one without history and a single game, the final one:
SB
BB
P4
P5
ME
P7
P8
P9
P10
D
A♣ Q♠
99
$500
$1000
FOLD
RAISE $2000
CALL
FOLD
FOLD
FOLD
FOLD
ALL IN ($17170)
FOLD
FOLD
FOLD
ALL IN ($15506)
Flop: 7♥ K♥ Q♣ – for the moment, I’m the winner!
But this is “JokerStars”, to not forget!:
Turn: 9♥
River: 2♣
And so I finished my play at this tournament, on the 25263rd place
The World Series of Poker, held annually at Las Vegas casinos, was first started in 1970 when Benny Binion invited 7 of the most famous poker players to the Horseshoe Casino for a tournament.
The tournament has grown substantially over the years and has been sponsored by Harrah’s Entertainment since 2005.
Each event’s winner receives a cash prize based on the total number of players and buy-in costs, as well as a WSOP bracelet, which is known to be the most prestigious non-cash prize a poker player can win.
The annual WSOP main event is a $10,000 buy-in no limit Texas hold ‘em tournament that typically draws participants totaling in the thousands from all over the world.
The main event in 2011, which featured 6,865 players, began on July 7th and took eight days and over 500,000 hands to reach the final nine players.
PARIS, France — (PRESS RELEASE) — Welcome to the WPT Champions Club, Matthew Waxman. Waxman made history Saturday night, becoming the first American player to win the World Poker Tour® Grand Prix de Paris, dominating final table action at the Aviation Club de France.
The Floridian went into heads up play with a more than 5:1 chip lead and needed just three hands to defeat France’s Hugo Lemaire, winning $729,866/€518,750 for first place and the coveted WPT title. It was Waxman’s 11th WPT event, but his first final table.
In addition to having his name engraved alongside the legends of the game on the towering WPT Champions Cup trophy, Waxman will get a replica of the WPT Champions Cup, a Tiffany & Co. WPT Champions Award and entrance into the WPT Champions Club, which offers all WPT champions exclusive benefits, a WPT personal concierge and VIP treatment at WPT events. Waxman’s win includes a seat to the Season X WPT World Championship at Bellagio in Las Vegas, NV in 2012.
The 26-year-old Waxman outlasted a tough international field of 312 players that included numerous former WPT champions, as well as WPT’s Mike Sexton and Tony Dunst. Youth prevailed again on World Poker Tour, as five of the six players at the final table were 26 years old or younger.
For his second place finish, Lemaire earns $442,645/€311,100 and a seat to WPT Amneville. France’s Fred Magen finished third, winning $299,834/€211,100 and entry into the WPT National Paris Open of Poker.
There are two more World Poker Tour events in September, both featuring the popular re-entry structure. WPT Borgata Poker Open in Atlantic City, NJ runs Sept. 18 to 23; WPT Malta at The Casino at Portomaso will be played Sept. 20 – 24.
WPT Grand Prix de Paris Final Standings
1st: Matthew Waxman $729,866/€518,750
2nd: Hugo Lemaire $442,645/€311,100
3rd: Fred Magen $299,834/€211,100
4th: Byron Kaverman $218,860/€155,550
5th: Mikko Sundell $187,597/€133,330
6th: Martin Jacobson $125,083/€88,900
The European Poker Tour (EPT) began in 2004 as part of the worldwide explosion in Texas Hold ‘em popularity. It shows a series of poker tournaments similar to those in the World Poker Tour (WPT).
The most significant difference between the competing poker tours is the buyin and its effect on the prize pool, with the EPT featuring buyins about half the size of the WPT. The resulting effect upon the EPT is that it has less “star power” and lower cash prizes. Nevertheless, winners of the first two EPT events took home prizes in the $100,000 range, lucrative enough to attract many top competitors.
Furthermore, the final table is made up of 8 players, as opposed to the 6 player final tables popularised by the WPT.
The EPT is sponsored by PokerStars.com and taped for television broadcast in the United Kingdom by Sunset & Vine and Channel 4.
The tour was created by John Duthie, winner of the inaugural Poker Million tournament.
The World Poker Tour Walk of Fame is designed to honor those poker players who have played the game well at the highest levels as well as those who have promoted the spread of it through film, television, and literature. It was started in 2004.
The Walk of Fame is located in front of the Commerce Casino in Los Angeles, California. As well as inductee handprints on each tile, there is a depiction of each of their respective most famous poker hands.
The World Poker Tour (WPT) is a collection of poker tournaments featuring most of the world’s professional players. It was started by attorney/television producer Stephen Lipscomb who now serves as CEO of WPT Enterprises (WPTE), the firm that controls the World Poker Tour.
The tour had its debut season in the latter part of 2002 and early part of 2003, climaxing with the WPT Championship in April 2003 at the Bellagio Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. The first season aired on the Travel Channel on American cable television in the spring of 2003. The show made its network debut on February 1, 2004 on NBC with a special “Battle Of Champions” tournament, which aired against CBS coverage of the Super Bowl XXXVIII pre-game show.
The World Poker Tour is a collection of Texas hold ‘em poker tournaments held internationally and on board cruise ships, but mainly in the United States. The television show has led to a boom in the table game across American homes, local casinos and poker rooms, and online. It is perhaps not surprising, therefore, that the key sponsors of the tour are casinos and online poker sites. The show, which is syndicated internationally, is co-hosted by World Series of Poker winner Mike Sexton, and actor Vince Van Patten. Former model Shana Hiatt served as the show host and sideline reporter in its first three seasons. Former newscaster Courtney Friel took over the host role for the fourth season in 2005-06.
First exemplified by the long-running World Series of Poker main event, a poker tournament gives each player an equal amount of chips to start, with colors representing different values. Play continues, typically over several days until one player has acquired all of the chips. When that occurs, that player has won the game and captures the grand prize, approximately 30-35% of the total prize pool. The resulting winner’s check can exceed one million dollars. All other competitors finish with no chips, but win a portion of the prize pool according to the order in which they left the tournament. The last player to lose all of his chip-stack finishes in 2nd position, typically worth approximately 20% of the prize pool.
The drawing power of the WPT, like any poker tournament, is that anyone who can pay the “buy-in” (an entry fee usually worth a few thousand dollars) or win a “satellite” tournament is able to compete against the top professional players, such as Phil Hellmuth, Doyle Brunson, or the top 2004 tournament money and multi-WPT tournament winner, Daniel Negreanu.
Fans of the show find it interesting due to technical innovations such as the ability to see the players’ hole cards through a small camera in front of them on the poker table (an innovation first seen on the UK programme Late Night Poker). Due to the success of the show, special programs, such as the “Hollywood Home Game”, featuring celebrities playing for charity, and “Ladies Night”, where six of the top women played against each other, were developed.
In 2004 the World Poker Tour created a Walk of Fame, inducting poker legends Doyle Brunson and Gus Hansen as well as actor James Garner.
Now in its fourth season of broadcast, it still remains among the highest rated television programs on cable. It airs Wednesdays on the Travel Channel. The first three seasons of WPT are also available on NTSC DVD. (The second season DVD set features audio commentary by several of the players. The third season is only available in a “Best Of” format, featuring just half of the episodes.)
A series of spin-off tournaments, titled the Professional Poker Tour, began filming in 2004. No episodes have as yet been broadcast, partly due to a dispute with the Travel Channel over rights. In the fall of 2005, WPTE announced that “a cable channel” (believed to be ESPN) had withdrawn from bidding for the PPT series, and that WPTE was negotiating with the Travel Channel to air the series.
In 2008, the WPT started offering bracelets to its event champions. Players who won a title prior to the release of the bracelet, were given one retroactively.
Player of the Year
Points are awarded for all Open events as follows:
Winner: 1000 points
Runner-up: 700 points
3rd place: 600 points
4th place: 500 points
5th place: 400 points
6th place: 300 points
7th place (TV bubble): 200 points
This award is given out to one player per season.
This award is given out to one player per season. The winners so far are:
Season 1: Howard Lederer
Season 2: Erick Lindgren
Season 3: Daniel Negreanu
Season 4: Gavin Smith
Season 5: J. C. Tran
Season 6: Jonathan Little
Season 7: Bertrand Grospellier
Below are the World Poker Tour events that have broken the record for the first prize.
Like any event or sports league, the WSOP also has corporate sponsors and licensed products, which like any leagues or events, pay fees to market themselves as an official sponor and/or licensee and exclusively use the WSOP insigina and cross-promote with their events. Besides the Harrah’s properties and ESPN, major sponsors have included Miller Brewing’s “Milwaukee’s Best” brand of beers, Pepsi’s SoBe Adreneline Rush energy drink (sponsors of the 2005 TOC), Helene Curtis’ Degree brand of anti-perspirant/deodorant, Card Player magazine, and GlaxoSmithKline/Bayer’s Levitra erectile dysfunction medicine are all official corporate sponsors. Licensees include Activision (video games for different plaforms such as Nintendo’s GameCube, Microsoft’s Xbox, Sony’s PlayStation 2 and PC featuring computer generated versions of stars like Ferguson among others), and products made by different companies ranging from chip sets, playing cards, hand held games and clothing like caps and shirts. The fees and licences bring in over a million dollars to Harrah’s.
The main event
The main event of the WSOP is the $10,000 buy-in no-limit Texas Hold ‘Em tournament. Winners of the event not only get the largest prize of the tournament and golden bracelet, but additionally their picture is placed into the Gallery of Champions at Binion’s.
There have been many memorable events during the WSOP, including Jack Straus’s 1982 comeback win after discovering he had one $500 chip left when he thought he was out of the tournament.
A few players have won the WSOP multiple times, including Stu Ungar who won in 1980, 1981 and 1997. Ungar had a drug problem that spanned decades, which makes his 1997 win all the more amazing. Since Ungar had no money to enter the tournament in 1997, his friend and six-time WSOP bracelet winner Billy Baxter gave him the entrance fee. Ungar split the $1,000,000 prize evenly with Baxter.
Johnny Chan won back to back in 1987 and 1988. Chan finished 2nd in 1989 to the youngest WSOP main event winner of all time, Phil Hellmuth. The final hand of the 1988 event between Chan and Erik Seidel would later be featured in the movie Rounders.
Chris Moneymaker won the main event in 2003 after qualifying through a $39 satellite tournament at the PokerStars online cardroom. Four players at the final table of the 2004 main event qualified through PokerStars as well, including the winner, Greg Raymer and second place finisher David Williams. In 2005, eventual champion Joseph Hachem entered the old fashioned way: with the $10,000 buy-in. After winning, he signed a contract to act as a representative of PokerStars also.
It may be that winning the WSOP makes legends out of people, but some living poker legends have tried unsuccessfully for years to win the main event, including: T. J. Cloutier (2000 and 1985 runner-up), Erik Seidel (1988 runner-up), Dave “Devilfish” Ulliott, Barry Greenstein, Men “The Master” Nguyen, and Howard Lederer.
From 1971 on, all WSOP events have been tournaments with cash prizes. In 1973 a new event, five-card stud, was added to the main event of No Limit Texas Hold ‘em. Since then new events have been added and removed. In 2006 there will be 42 events at the WSOP, including poker games like Omaha and Razz as well as events only for seniors and women. Event winners get, in addition to their prize money, the coveted golden bracelet.
Doyle Brunson (nicknamed “Texas Dolly”) and Johnny Chan have each won ten bracelets, while Phil Hellmuth has nine. Doyle’s son, Todd Brunson, won a bracelet in a pot-limit Omaha event in 2005, making them the first father/son combo to win at least one event at the WSOP. Also, actress Jennifer Tilly became the second non-poker celebrity to win a WSOP event when she won the Women’s No-Limit Texas Hold-’Em event in 2005. French singer/actor Patrick Bruel won a Limit Hold’em championship in 1998.
The number of participants in the WSOP has grown every year, and in recent years the growth has exploded. In 2000 there were 4,780 entrants in the various events, but in 2005, the number rose to over 23,000 players. In the main event alone, participants grew from 839 in 2003, to 2,576 in 2004, to 5,619 in 2005. For the 2006 main event, a cap of 8,000 players has been established. Much of this growth can be attributed to the WSOP airing on ESPN and the World Poker Tour being shown on the Travel Channel, along with other USA television over-the-air and cable networks such as Fox Sports Net and their “Poker Superstars” series, Bravo with the “Celebrity Poker Showdown” series and GSN with their “Poker Royale” series, as well as the boom in online poker cardrooms on the World Wide Web.
Like most tournaments, the sponsoring casino takes a “rake” (a percentage of between six and ten percent, depending on the buy-in amount) from the buy-ins and distributes the rest, hence the prize money increases with more players. In the 2005 main event $52,818,610 (US) in prize money was distributed, including a $7.5 million first prize. Subtracting the $10,000 buy-ins, over $47 million was won by 560 players in the event. Carl Ygborn finished “on the bubble” (in 561st place), and Harrah’s gave him a free entry into the 2006 Main Event.
One event, that was scheduled for Biloxi, Mississippi, was canceled after the Grand Casino Biloxi, which was scheduled to host the event, suffered major damage from Hurricane Katrina. The Rio also hosted the 2006 World Series of Poker, which began on June 25 with satellite events and formally began the day after with the annual Casino Employee event, won in 2006 by Chris Gros. 2006 featured the “Tournament of Champions” on June 25 and 26, won by Mike Sexton. Various events led up to the main event, which was held from July 28 until August 10. The first prize of $12 million was awarded to Jamie Gold.
The World Series of Poker is the most prestigious set of poker tournaments in the world.
Origins
The original World Series of Poker was started by Tom Morehead of the Riverside casino in Reno and was an invitational event. The set of tournaments the World Series of Poker (WSOP) would evolve to was the brainchild of Las Vegas legend, casino owner, and poker player Benny Binion as well as his two sons Jack and Ted.
Johnny Moss, Becky Binion, and Puggy Pearson at the 1974 World Series of Poker
The Binion family not only nurtured the WSOP, but poker in general. Prior to the 1970s, poker was not found at many casinos because of the difficulty of keeping cheaters out. Through better security techniques as well as the Binion’s tireless promotion through events like the WSOP, poker became a very popular game.
In 1970 the first WSOP at Binion’s Horseshoe took place with seven players. The winner, Johnny Moss was elected by his peers as the first World Champion of Poker and received a silver cup as a prize.
A chip race is an event that takes place in poker tournaments, especially those with an escalating blinds (such as Texas hold ‘em), in which chips of denominations that are no longer needed (as the current and upcoming blinds are more easily played with larger chip values) are removed from play. This has the effect of reducing the number of physical chips in front of any player, and makes it easier for the players to count their stacks and their bets.
In a typical chip race:
All players color up their lesser-valued chips into greater denominations. For example, if the blinds have increased to a level where $5 chips are no longer needed to post blinds, each five $5 chips will be exchanged for a $25 chip. Players will temporarily keep any leftover chips that cannot be fully colored up to larger chips (less than 5 $5 chips in the above example).
All leftover chips are counted, and equivalent chips in the larger denomination are presented to the table. Continuing the example, if there are 15 $5 chips remaining among 6 players, 3 $25 chips are prepared. In the event the remaining smaller chips do not add up to a whole larger chip, an extra larger chip should be added as long as the leftover smaller chips total more than half a single larger chip.
Each player with leftover chips in the smaller denomination will receive one card for each chip. The cards are typically dealt face up, starting from the small blind position for the upcoming hand. Each player due to receive cards will receive all of his cards before the next player, rather than a “traditional” card deal; the player on the little blind, for example, who is due to receive three cards for his three chips, will receive all three of his cards before the big blind receives any.
The larger chips are issued to the players with the highest single cards showing (poker hands do not count). No player is issued more than one chip. Ties (cards of the same rank) are broken by suit, using the same bridge (ascending alphabetical) order of the suits: Spades are highest, followed by Hearts, Diamonds, and Clubs. All remaining lesser-value chips are removed from play.
A chip race cannot eliminate a player from the game. In the event a player’s last smaller-denomination chips are removed from play as part of the chip race, he automatically gets one colored up chip if one is available. Any leftover colored up chips go to the winner(s) of the chip race as described above.
The European Poker Tour (EPT) began in 2004 as part of the worldwide explosion in Texas Hold ‘em popularity. It shows a series of poker tournaments similar to those in the World Poker Tour (WPT).
Johnny Moss, Becky Binion, and Puggy Pearson at the 1974 World Series of Poker