The World Series of Poker (WSOP) is a series of poker tournaments held annually in Las Vegas and, since 2004, sponsored by Caesars Entertainment. It dates its origins to 1970, when Benny Binion invited seven of the best-known poker players to the Horseshoe Casino for a single tournament, with a set start and stop time, and a winner determined by a secret ballot of the seven players.
Texas hold 'em is one of the most popular variants of the card game of poker. Two cards, known as hole cards, are dealt face down to each player, and then five community cards are dealt face up in three stages. The stages consist of a series of three cards, later an additional single card, and a final card. Each player seeks the best five card poker hand from any combination of the seven cards; the five community cards and their two hole cards. Players have betting options to check, call, raise, or fold. Rounds of betting take place before the flop is dealt and after each subsequent deal. The player who has the best hand and has not folded by the end of all betting rounds wins all of the money bet for the hand, known as the pot. In certain situations, a "split-pot" or "tie" can occur when two players have hands of equivalent value. This is also called a "chop-pot".
Doyle F. Brunson is a retired American poker player who played professionally for over 50 years. He is a two-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event champion, a Poker Hall of Fame inductee, and the author of several books on poker.
David Sklansky is an American professional poker player and author. An early writer on poker strategy, he is known for his mathematical approach to the game. His key work The Theory of Poker presents fundamental principles on which much later analysis is based.
Alfred Alvarez was an English poet, novelist, essayist and critic who published under the name A. Alvarez and Al Alvarez.
Johnny Moss was a gambler and professional poker player. He was the first winner of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event, at the time a cash game event in which he was awarded the title by the vote of his peers in 1970. He also twice won the current tournament format of the WSOP Main Event in 1971 and 1974. He was one of the charter inductees into the Poker Hall of Fame in 1979.
Ihsan "Sam" Farha is a Lebanese professional poker player. He is best known for finishing as runner up in the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event in 2003. He has won three bracelets at the WSOP in his career.
Thomas K. McEvoy is a professional poker player, author and member of the Poker Hall of Fame, 2013 inductee. He is best known for winning the 1983 World Series of Poker Main Event.
Walter Clyde "Puggy" Pearson was an American professional poker player. He is best known as the 1973 World Series of Poker Main Event winner.
Anthony Holden is an English writer, broadcaster and critic, particularly known as a biographer of artists including Shakespeare, Tchaikovsky, the essayist Leigh Hunt, the opera librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte and the actor Laurence Olivier, and of members of the British royal family, notably Charles, Prince of Wales. He has also published translations of opera and Ancient Greek poetry, as well as several autobiographical books about poker. In 2009, he was elected the first President of the International Federation of Poker (IFP).
Todd Alan Brunson is an American professional poker player and the son of poker player Doyle Brunson. Doyle Brunson did not teach Todd how to play; it was not until he was studying law at Texas Tech University that he learned how to play on his own. Before his senior year, he dropped out of school to turn professional.
Chau Tu Giang is a Vietnamese-born American professional poker player of Chinese descent, who is a three-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner and a three-time final tablist of the World Poker Tour with over $3 million in live tournament winnings alone.
The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King: Inside the Richest Poker Game of All Time is a 2005 book by Michael Craig detailing billionaire Andrew Beal's series of high-stakes poker games with Las Vegas' top professional poker players. The book title refers to some of the professional players involved in this series. The Professor is mathematical poker mind Howard Lederer, the Banker is Andrew Beal himself, and the Suicide King is crazy, sometimes reckless player Ted Forrest. It also refers to the King of Hearts, since on the card the King's sword appears to be put in his head.
Eliahu Ilan Elezra is an Israeli professional poker player and businessman, now living in Las Vegas, Nevada.
PokerStars is an online poker cardroom owned by The Stars Group. It can be accessed through downloadable poker clients for the Windows, macOS, Android and iOS. It is the largest real money online poker site in the world, controlling over two-thirds of the total online poker market.
The 1972 World Series of Poker (WSOP) was a series of poker tournaments held during early May 1972 at the Binion's Horseshoe in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was the 3rd annual installment of the World Series of Poker, and also the 2nd one to feature the freezeout structure. In comparison with the previous year's series, the number of events was cut back and the buy-ins were raised, resulting in 1 preliminary event and the Main Event both having the same buy-in of $10K. The preliminary event featured 5-card stud poker and was won by Bill Boyd, the same man who won the 1971 5-card stud preliminary event. The previous years' double champion Johnny Moss was defeated early in the main event and Thomas "Amarillo Slim" Preston went on to win the tournament after a series of deals.
The game of poker was developed some time during the early 19th century in the United States. Since those early beginnings, poker has grown to become an extremely popular pastime throughout the world.
The Global Poker Index (GPI) is a leaderboard index that ranks over 450,000 live tournament poker players in the world. The GPI poker rankings are updated on a weekly basis. Players’ performances are assessed by their finishing positions in poker tournaments occurring over six periods of six months.
George Brandon Adams is an American poker player and self-published author.
