With the 40th anniversary of the WSOP almost upon us I thought I would put together a retrospective of the tournament's history.

In 1969 the idea of a World Series of Poker began with something called the Texas Gambling Reunion, an invitation only event sponsored by Tom Moore of San Antonio, Texas, and held at the Holiday Hotel and Casino in Reno. This inaugural event was won by Crandell Addington.



1970 – The World Series of Poker officially begins, although it has a much different format than we are currently used to seeing! The 1970 WSOP was also an invitational event, and was the brainchild of Las Vegas casino owner and poker player Benny Binion, who felt the sight of 6 high-rollers in his casino would be good for business. The six players competed in different cash games, and won by Johnny Moss. Moss was elected by his peers as the first World Champion of Poker, and received a silver cup as a prize. Rumor has It; it took two ballots to decide the winner, since each player voted for himself as the best in the world on the first ballot. Moss would go on to win in again in 1971 and 1974, in the freeze-out style tournament we are accustomed to today.



1972 – Thomas “Amarillo Slim” Preston wins the WSOP, and becomes the unofficial ambassador for the game; His success and colorful colloquialisms earned him multiple appearances on the talk show circuits of the day, earning poker some mainstream appeal. Sadly “Slim” has run into legal issues later in life, and although he maintains his innocence his reputation has been severely damaged.



1976 & 1977 – Doyle Brunson takes down the Main Event Championship two years in a row, and a legend is born. “Texas Dolly” won the event with a T2 both years –and both years had to get very lucky after the money went in- and the fame gave him the idea to write a book Super System, which subsequently changed poker forever.



1979 – Hal Fowler becomes the first non-professional to win the Main Event. Still considered one of the greatest upsets in WSOP history, Fowler came back from 2,000 chips at the final table (there were 500,000 chips in play) to win the WSOP. It would be some 23 years before a virtually unknown player captured the Main Event title –Robert Varkonyi.