In 1949, Benny Binion - owner of the Horse Shoe Casino in downtown Las Vegas, held a poker challenge between Johnny Moss and Nick “the Greek” Dandolos. The card game lasted an unimaginable five months before Moss was declared the winner and Dandolos reportedly walked away $2 million dollars poorer. This laid the seed to what would become the World Series of Poker. Jack Binion (Benny’s son) got together with a few of his poker mates in 1971 and decided to have a tournament so that they could have an official winner. This is where tournament poker got its birth.

In that year six players shelled out $5000 to compete and Johnny Moss outlasted them all to become the first ever WSOP Champion. A year later Jack Binion was quoted as saying “This year we had 13 players. I am looking to get up to 20 next year and in years to come it’s liable to get to over 50… it will eventually!” These figures turned out to be very modest as the numbers continued to rise rapidly in the following decades. Names like Doyle Brunson, Stu Unger, Johhny Chan and Phil Hellmuth would emerge as Champions of the game and etch their names in poker immortality.

In 1998 Scotty Nguyen became the first player to win $1 million dollars for claiming pokers biggest title. In 2003 a little known accountant, Chris Moneymaker, won his seat online and walked away with over $2.5 million, proving that the prize could be up for grabs for any level of player. This was the start of the poker boom and the game would never be the same again. The prize money would get even bigger, the winners would become superstars and the legacy that is the WSOP would grow to incredible levels.

Would you like your chance to become the next new poker star and walk away with millions of dollars? Well 888 Poker is making this dream a reality for many of their players with an extensive schedule of WSOP packages to be won. You could join the bracelet chase and turn a few dollars into the trip of a life time to play in the WSOP in Vegas and who knows, you could be the one holding up that bracelet as the next World Champion of Poker.