The World Series of Poker (WSOP) is a series of poker tournaments held annually in Paradise, Nevada 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.
A poker tournament is a tournament where players compete by playing poker. It can feature as few as two players playing on a single table, and as many as tens of thousands of players playing on thousands of tables. The winner of the tournament is usually the person who wins every poker chip in the game and the others are awarded places based on the time of their elimination. To facilitate this, in most tournaments, blinds rise over the duration of the tournament. Unlike in a ring game, a player's chips in a tournament cannot be cashed out for money and serve only to determine the player's placing.
The World Poker Tour (WPT) is an internationally televised gaming and entertainment brand. Since 2002, the World Poker Tour has operated a series of international poker tournaments and associated television series broadcasting playdown and the final table of each tournament.
Gustav Hansen is a Danish professional poker player from Copenhagen, Denmark who has lived in Monaco since 2003. In his poker career, Hansen has won three World Poker Tour open titles, one WSOP bracelet and the 2007 Aussie Millions main event, and was the season one winner of the Poker Superstars Invitational Tournament. Before turning to playing poker professionally in 1997, Hansen was already a world class backgammon player and a youth tennis champion.
James Gary Bechtel is an American cotton farmer and poker player, now based in Gilbert, Arizona. He is best known for winning the 1993 Main Event at the World Series of Poker (WSOP). At the time of his WSOP win, he lived in Coolidge, Arizona.
The European Poker Tour (EPT) is a series of poker tournaments similar to those in the World Poker Tour (WPT), created by John Duthie, winner of the inaugural Poker Million tournament. It began in 2004 as part of the worldwide explosion in Texas Hold 'em popularity. Since 2011 the EPT has been sponsored and wholly owned and controlled by PokerStars the online casino and taped by Sunset + Vine for television broadcast across Europe.
The Australian Poker Championship, commonly known as Aussie Millions, is a series of poker tournaments held at the Crown Casino, in Melbourne, Australia. The Main Event of the series is the Southern Hemisphere's richest poker tournament with a prize pool in excess of A$7 million.
Philip Stewart Gordon is an American professional poker player, commentator and author.
The Player Channel, known as the Poker Channel until 3 December 2012, was a gaming TV network which broadcast to over 30 million households in 30 countries.
Andrew Black is a poker player from Belfast, Northern Ireland, who presently resides in Dublin.
Rob Hollink is a professional poker player based in Groningen. He has won both a European Poker Tour (EPT) title and World Series of Poker bracelet, becoming the first person from the Netherlands to do so, first was at the EPT's inaugural Grand Final of the European Poker Tour in Monte Carlo in 2005 and then he won his first bracelet at the 2008 World Series of Poker in the $10,000 Limit Hold'em World Championship, becoming the first Dutch bracelet winner.
Poker television programs had been extremely popular, especially in North America and Europe, following the poker boom. This has especially become the case since the invention of the "pocket cam" in 1997, which allows viewers at home to see each player's hole cards. However, viewership has been declining dramatically in recent years, due to laws that restricted online play in the United States.
The World Series of Poker Circuit is a series of poker tournaments held annually at a variety of casinos since 2005 as a build-up to the World Series of Poker (WSOP).
The World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) is the first expansion effort of World Series of Poker-branded poker tournaments outside the United States. Since 1970, participants had to travel to Las Vegas if they wanted to compete in the World Series of Poker (WSOP). Although the WSOP held circuit events in other locations, the main tournaments, which awarded bracelets to the winners, were exclusively held in Las Vegas. The inaugural WSOPE, held in 2007, marked the first time that a WSOP bracelet was awarded outside Las Vegas. From its inception to the 2013 tournament, players from 19 countries — USA (10), France (4), UK (3), Denmark (3), Canada (2), Norway (2), Portugal (2), Italy (2), Afghanistan, Germany, Indonesia, Spain, New Zealand, Sweden, Tunisia, Switzerland, Australia, Italy and Finland — have won bracelets.
Marty Smyth is a professional poker player from Belfast, Northern Ireland with a track record including wins in the 2007 Irish Poker Open Championship and the 2008 Poker Million. He won his first WSOP bracelet in the 2008 $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha World Championship.
Thomas Dwan Jr. is an American professional poker player who played online in the highest-stakes No-Limit Texas hold 'em and Pot-Limit Omaha games, primarily on Full Tilt Poker under the screen name "durrrr".Dwan has won prize money in live poker tournaments and has appeared on NBC's National Heads-Up Poker Championship, the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh seasons of Poker After Dark, the third, fourth, and fifth seasons of Full Tilt Poker's Million Dollar Cash Game, and the fifth, sixth, eighth and ninth seasons of GSN's High Stakes Poker.
Daniel Heimiller is an American professional poker player who won the Limit Hold'em & Seven-Card Stud event at the 2002 World Series of Poker and the Seniors No-Limit Hold'em Championship in 2014. He has at least one WSOP cash for 25 consecutive years (1997-2021). He is ranked 5th in all time number of live tournament cashes and 12th in all time number of WSOP cashes.
The Amateur Poker Association & Tour (APAT) is an organisation founded in 2006 and is Europe's largest organisation for recreational poker players, with a membership of over 20,000 players.
The World Series of Poker Africa (WSOPA) is the second expansion effort of World Series of Poker-branded poker tournaments outside the United States. Since 1970, participants had to travel to Las Vegas if they wanted to compete in the World Series of Poker (WSOP). Although the WSOP started holding circuit events in 2005 in other states, the main tournaments, which awarded bracelets to the winners, were exclusively held in Las Vegas. In 2007, the inaugural World Series of Poker Europe marked the first time that a WSOP bracelet was awarded outside Las Vegas. In 2010, the WSOP expanded overseas once again, only this time to Gauteng, South Africa. While the WSOPE awarded bracelets, the WSOPA was considered a circuit event with the winners receiving Championship Rings instead of bracelets. The WSOPA did not occur in 2011, but the series of tournaments resumed in 2012.
Lucky Jack.tv is a television channel broadcasting from Luxembourg, devoted to poker and online sports betting games created in September 2010. It belongs to AB Groupe.