The World Series of Poker features one tournament as its main event: a $10,000 buy-in no limit Texas Hold’em tournament. The first such poker tournament was held in 1970, in Las Vegas, when Benny Binion invited some of the best poker players in the world to compete with one another at the Horseshoe Casino. In 1982, the poker tournament had grown to 52 participants, instead of the original six. In 1987, that number had again grown to 2,100 poker players entering the tournament. In 2006, the highest recorded number of poker players entered the poker tournament, with a total of 8,773 players participating. The winner of every single World Series of Poker tournament from 1976 on has received a bracelet, which signifies the poker player’s success and skill. These bracelets are the most important trophies in all of professional poker playing.
It’s hard to believe that poker rose to such prominent heights so quickly. Poker has been a well-known game for a long time, and people were easily playing it for fun or money throughout the 20th century. Casinos likely incorporated it into their workings early on. But the idea of professional poker players and professional poker tournaments would likely have seemed genuinely strange in 1970, to people who weren’t used to the idea of watching poker on television the same way they might watch football, or basketball. Indeed, the original poker tournaments that were featured in the World Series of Poker sound closer to small exhibition matches, designed to feature a casino more than the players themselves, and definitely more than the game of poker.
But now, poker can be found on numerous TV channels. Cameras zoom in on the stoically empty faces of hot-shot poker pros, as they peek at the underside of their cards, and then casually toss those cards away in a fold. Poker has been glamorized in a way that early poker players would likely never have expected. Part of this, of course, can be attributed to the tremendous monetary success of those poker players who do quite well at tournaments. With prizes of millions of dollars, it’s hard not to glamorize poker players who earn those prizes by outwitting their competition. Beyond this, there’s always been something glamorous, something roguishly charming in the clever, deceptive poker player, who gambles everything and comes out ahead. People love risk, and they love it especially when risk pays off; no game better exemplifies this kind of behavior than poker.
Where will poker go in the future? After all, poker tournaments are now regularly broadcast, and prominent poker players can often be recognized on the street with ease. Will poker players simply keep growing in fame, until they’re as widely known as football players or basketball players? It seems somewhat unlikely, but as America moves more and more towards digitalization, and as the Internet becomes more and more important, it’s possible that games that can be broadcast easily and played easily on the Internet will earn more attention than more traditional games. In other words, the future of poker in an Internet age looks quite bright indeed.