The World Series of Poker (WSOP) is the biggest and most prestigious poker competition in the world, held in Las Vegas every year.

The first WSOP was a much smaller scale event than today's mega-bucks poker circus extravaganza. In fact, the World had hardly noticed the first event that was held in 1970 when a well known poker enthusiast who also happened to be a casino owner, invited six of his friends to play at his place. These friends happened to be the most highly respected and best known poker players at the time. The competinion was held at the legendary Horseshoe Casino in Vegas.

The event turned out to be a succes and in the following years it started to get momentum slowly. While 12 years later only 52 poker players competed against each other, 1987 saw over 2,100 entrants and this number rose beyond 8,000 in 2006. In the early 1980s satellite tournaments were introduced to let poker playerse win their entry into the various events for less than the full entry fees.

The WSOP bracelet is considered to be the most prestigious prize any poker player can call his own. This is what players compete for. First awarded in 1976, the legendary WSOP bracelet has been given to the winner of every event. Phil Hellmuth is the person who won the biggest number pf WSOP bracelets: 11 altogether throughout the years. He is followed by Doyle Brunson and Johnny Chan with 10 bracelets each.

There were only 14 bracelet events in 1990, while ten years later this number increased to 24 while in the 2009 WSOP, there were 57 bracelets awarded in Las Vegas.