World Series Of Poker* History

A History of the World Series

The World Series of Poker* has come a long way since its humble beginnings in 1970 at Binion's historical Horseshoe. Back then there were barely 50 casinos in the whole of Vegas. That year, Johnny Moss was voted the best in the world and walked away with a silver cup.

Fast forward to 2006, when a record-setting $12 million Main Event championship prize was awarded to one member of Team Bodog. In total, Team Bodog walked away with over $15 million in cash prizes and two World Series bracelets.

2007 was also the year of the inaugural World Series Europe, held in London, England. Chasing a prize pool of over £7 million, Team Bodog battled it out with many of the world's poker pros and came out on top. Team Bodog's Matt McCullough from New Jersey took an impressive third place finish, winning £381,910 as the last American standing.

At the World Series 2008 in Vegas, Denmark's Peter Eastgate, who at 22 became the youngest Main Event winner, cashed for a cool $9.1 million. For Team Bodog, 2008 was also a lucrative year for the Main Event, with five players cashing. William Soffin placed 206th for $38,600; Evelyn Ng placed 238th for $35,383; Magnus Petersson placed 337th for $32,166; Adam Grovenstein placed 555th for $23,160; and Ryan Monastryski placed 606th for $21,230.

In 2008, Bodog sent poker pros as well as the top two finishers in the Euro Main Event Semifinal held in the Bodog Poker room to the World Series Europe. "syzygy3732" and "Ozone23" were whisked to London to play alongside the best players the poker world has to offer. The event saw a stacked final table, which included the likes of Daniel Negrenau, Scott Fischman, Ivan Demidov and the £868,800 (US$1.5 million) winner, John Juanda.

The 2009 World Series Vegas featured 57 events taking place from May 27 to July 15. With the Main Event Final Table decided, the "November Nine" will return to their seats on November 7 - to determine who will be crowned 2009 World Series Champion and take home the lion's share of the loot.

Many experts predicted that the current economic times may cause a decline in entries in '09, but instead we saw numerous entry records broken this year. The new $1K stimulus tournament attracted over 6000 entrants, and only a couple of WSOP Main Events have had fields bigger than that.

The big stories of the 2009 WSOP have been Jeff Lisandro and Phil Ivey. It's a rare occasion when a player wins two bracelets in one WSOP, but Jeff Lisandro was able to do it three times this year.

Phil Ivey was able to win twice in '09, and is still in the Main Event as a member of the November Nine, sitting with just under ten million in chips as he waits for November to roll around.

Team Bodog and Bodog Pros Take The Strip by Storm in 2009

Team Bodog had a good run in the WSOP Main Event with numerous players making it into Day 3. The Team Bodog professional that went the deepest was Justin Bonomo, who went out in 442nd place. He managed to make it to the money but didn't get deep into the big payouts. The Team Bodog qualifier that went the deepest was Alper "thunderfx" Sar.

Sar flew to Vegas in time to play in Day 1C of the Main Event and 6,409 players later, on Day 6 of the tournament and eight days after first sitting down to play poker, his run came to an end. The Turkish investment banker finished in 85th and walked away with $57,991 for his impressive performance.

You can read all about Sar in our Poker Articles section. Entitled, "Post WSOP Interview with Team Bodog's Alper Sar," our interview with him pretty much sums up his incredible journey from Turkey to The Strip, from start to finish.

On the whole, though, our Bodog Pros did us proud. Evelyn Ng played in numerous events and gave it everything she had, but walked away empty handed. David Williams, on the other hand, walked away $107,061 richer - bringing his career earnings up over the $6.3 million mark. The man with the most was Justin Bonomo, who led the way at World Series Vegas with a total haul of $434,913.

For a wrap-up of some of Team Bodog's best work at the 2009 WSOP*, check out "Top Ten Moments for Team Bodog and Bodog Pros at 2009 WSOP."

Think you've got what it takes to take on the pros? Now it's time to think of your next Bodog Poker challenge? Qualify to participate in some of the world's most exclusive land-based tournaments with Bodog Flight Club.