World Series of Poker in the 2000's

No limit Texas Holdem plus the internet equals poker explosion. The World Series of Poker* would finally feel the full effects of the internet. The decade began with gradual increases in expansion with 512 players entered into the 2000 WSOP Main Event and 24 preliminary events. The cult success of the 1998 movie Rounders probably helped encourage some starry-eyed hopefuls into particiapting also. Internet poker rooms began offering prize packages to the World Series of Poker Main Event by offering tiered lower buy-in tournaments, where you as long as you kept winning, you could move up to the next rung on the "ladder". In 2003, Chris Moneymaker won his way into the World Series of Poker main event through one of the low buy-in online satellites, and eventually turned it into a $2.5 million payday.

This created the perfect storm. With the notoriety of the appropriately named Moneymaker, the popularity of Texas Holdem on telvision programs such as the World Poker Tour, ESPN's coverage of the WSOP, and the fact that Moneymaker had won his way into the event for $25, the WSOP was about to go on a meteoric rise. No Limit Texas Holdem was also the perfect game for televeision. With only 2 hole cards, and 5 board cards, there weren't as many cards and discards to keep track of as opposed to a game like seven card stud. Couple that with a player being to state the now famous words "all in", and push his whole stack in at any time and you have high drama with big bluffs, bad beats, and huge paydays.

By 2005, the World Series had grown too large for the iconic Binion's Horseshoe. That, combined with the Horseshoe running into financial diffuculties, led to the WSOP being bought by Harrah's and being moved to the Rio Casino Convention Center. Participation in the Main Event hit its peak in 2006 with 8,773 entrants and a $12.5 million dollar first prize. Later that year, the UIGEA was passed. It would curtail the growth of the Main Event as many online poker rooms stopped accepting money from U.S. players and the rooms that had not, could not pay the entry fees directly to the event coordinators. Even in the light of the new legislation, overall participation in the WSOP would grow to a record 54,000+ paid entrants in 2009. This year would also see Joe Cada become the youngest player to ever claim the Main Event Championship. The WSOP is now one of the most recognized brands in the sports and entertainment industries and should flourish well into the next decade.