World Series Of Poker Returns To Tunica

By John Grochowski on Thursday January 7, 2016

3-card, activities, casino, casino-games, casinos, event, events, gambling, gaming-in-tunica, horseshoe, horseshoe-casino-tunica, mississippi, my-poker, poker, special-events, table-games, texas-hold-em, things-to-do-in-tunica, tournaments, travel-tunica, world-series-of-poker

When the World Series of Poker Circuit makes its Tunica stop Jan. 21-Feb. 1 at Horseshoe, it will be building on a tradition that began 45 years ago in Las Vegas. That’s when Benny Binion invited seven of the top poker players in the world to come to his casino for a tournament he called the World Series of Poker, and that’s grown into the mega-event that brings national ballyhoo and TV coverage every year.

The Circuit, which takes the show on tour, including 21 stops in the 204-15 season, is newer. It was launched in 2005 and has grown into a major attraction at Caesars Entertainment properties across the nation.

It follows a trail well-blazed by the WSOP pioneers. The main event at the World Series of Poker is no-limit Hold’em, and most of the 12 events in 12 days at Circuit events are Hold’em-based, though pot-limit Omaha, HORSE, and Omaha hi-lo also are a staples. Main event winners are determined on a freeze-out, last-player-standing basis, which also has carried over onto the Circuit. Competitors play until one player has the all the chips.

But that’s a format that wasn’t in place for the first World Series. The seven players gathered at the original Horseshoe competed in a series of events – five-card stud, deuce-to-seven low-ball draw, razz, seven-card stud, and Texas Hold’em. There were time limits, but no freeze-out.

Wiith no freeze-out and with multiple games leading up to one overall championship, how do you think the winner was determined? Total chips? A point system ranking results in each game?

Nope. The first World Series of Poker champion was selected by secret ballot, and the main criterion wasn’t who won the most money, but who had played the best.

Johnny Moss won that secret ballot, and in 1971 when the WSOP converted the main event to the no-limit Hold’em freeze-out we now know and love, he won that, too. That was the start of a grand tradition, one that brings players from far and wide to Tunica this month.