The 50th anniversary World Series of Poker kicks off today at the Rio in Las Vegas. Held for the first time in 1970 at the Horseshoe Casino, the WSOP has since become the biggest annual poker tournament series on the planet attracting the game’s elite and starry-eyed amateurs alike – all dreaming of winning a coveted WSOP bracelet.
Last year’s WSOP saw a record 123,865 entries over the course of almost two months, creating a 49-year high of US$266,889,193 in prize money. The average WSOP gold bracelet event in 2018 boasted a US$3,421,656 prize pool with US$655,337 going to the winner.
The 2019 series boast a record 89 event schedule, running from 29 May until 16 July, with the flagship US$10,000 buy-in Main Event starting on Wednesday 3 July.
The WSOP famously began at the Horseshoe in 1970 when Benny Binion invited seven of the world’s best players to compete against one another in a series of cash games, with the winner, Johnny Moss, decided by a vote from his peers.
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