Poker Info

The History of Binions

Benny Binion truly created a dream for all Poker Players the day he decided to start a friendly tournament back in the 70's with a few buddies, to see who was the best of 'em. Every year, the numbers continue to grow and so does the prize money. Eventually, the World Series of Poker became a world renowned poker event with players travelling the globe to try and prove they are the best of the best. You can see all the champions since the 1970's here on PokerPages.com along with all the other information you need to know.

For every Poker Player worldwide it is their ultimate dream to participate in in the World Series of Poker and be crowned the World Series Champion. This is the pinnacle that every poker player strives to achieve in their career. Every one of them wants the chance to wear one of the famous gold World Series of Poker bracelets given to the winner of any of the World Series events. Today as we approach the WSOP 2004, the main contenders for the highest amount of bracelets are tied with 9 bracelets each. They are Doyle Brunson and Phil Hellmuth Jr -the youngest player to ever win the WSOP main event. Johnny Chan is not far behind on the bracelet score.

The World Series of Poker is unequalled by any other poker event in the world today. No matter what events are added to the annual poker calendar, no matter how big the buy-in (even if it exceeds the $10,000 that was made so famous by the WSOP), nothing compares to sitting down in the tournament room with 100's of other poker players and hearing those words "Shuffle up and deal" as the dream starts to take place.

Every year the number of participants continues to grow for this most prestigious of tournaments. In May 2000, Chris "Jesus" Ferguson took the title of World Series of Poker Champion to come out ahead of 512 of the best poker players in the world and won 1.5 million dollars.

Each contestant paid $10,000 to enter the main event creating a world record prize pool of $5,120.000. Jumping ahead to the WSOP in 2003, there were 839 entrants all paying the $10,000 entrance fee, either from their own pockets, via a Super Satellite win or they won it at an online poker site.

Chris Moneymaker did just that, for his initial $40 investment on an online poker site he won his $10,000 entry to the WSOP, and sat down in anticipation on 1 just like all the other players. After a gruelling 5 days he was declared the overall winner and went home not only with the famous gold bracelet but also 2.5 million dollars, not bad for never having played a live tournament before and all that costing him only 40 bucks.

2004 heralded some major changes for Binions and the WSOP. For many years there has been speculation that this would be the last year of the WSOP, and as players descended on Binions one more time to participate in the next WSOP, players were heard to say, well it is definitely going to happen next year, the WSOP will be sold. Well everyone's fears turned into reality in January 2004, when authorities put padlocks and chains on the doors of Binion's Horseshoe and the gasp of breath taken by poker players could be heard the world over.

This definitely marked the end of an era for the Binion family, and their ownership of not only the casino in downtown Las Vegas, known as The Binions Horseshoe but also the World Series of Poker too, which has been held there since it started in 1970.

All this was taking place in Vegas as most of the top players were enjoying the Jack Binion World Poker Open in Tunica, and hearing stories of the deal that Jack had done for his casinos in Mississippi to Harrah's, including The Horseshoe in Tunica. Well it came as no surprise that it was announced that Becky Binion had signed a deal with Harrah's to take the Horseshoe in Vegas and the WSOP too.

So with most of the old team back to run the WSOP 2004, at the same venue, it is guaranteed to be a runaway success, and the numbers are being said will be up to 1400 entrants. They have already planned in the schedule to run it over 7 days if that happens.

We are sure that Harrah's will continue to share the dream and vision of the World Series of Poker and that for the Poker Player it will always remain at the top of the list for the one to win.