World Series of Poker (WSOP)  is at the moment one of the more popular poker tournaments, not only for the incredible amount of players participating, but also for the great media coverage that receives, as they are seen for thousands of people in their homes.

The history of WSOP goes back many years ago. Its creator was a poker fan named Benny Binion, who during the late 50s and 60s enjoyed organizing small poker and gambling competitions. Its passion for the game brought him to buy its own casino in 1970. He named it Binions Horseshoe Casino, which soon became a common visited place by the poker personalities of the time. With the increasing popularity of his casino, Benny soon started thinking about the idea of creating a poker tournament, and so he did. The name chosen for the competition was World Series Of Poker, which become more and more popular with the years. In the early 1980s a series of preliminary satellite competitions were introduced to select who will be playing the final tournament. This fact increased even more the popularity of the WSOP.

After the dead of the tournaments creator in 1989, his family took over the casino and the tournament. However, in 2004, the casino would be closed due to the fact that the taxes had not been paid.

But that did not mean the end of World Series of Poker. The same year, Harrahs Entertainment bought the casino and the WSOP brand rights. A new phase had just started. The first two next tournaments were also played at Binions casino; however, after 2006 they will start to take place across different casinos in EU.

Aware of the huge WSOP brand recognition together with the growing number of poker players and fans, Harrah decided to internationalize the competition, which so far had never took place outside USA.

That will be the beginning of World Series of poker Europe (WSOPE), whose first event took place in London in 2007. There were three different events in this tournaments played at three different casinos. To be the first time was quite successful, as the possibility of winning one of the desired WSOP bracelets attracted many well known players.

The second event, also celebrated in London was formed by four different events, but this time they all took place at only one casino. The triumph of this second edition proved the success of the event, which was once more reconfirmed by the huge amount of participants in the last edition, which is taking place right now in London.

Thanks to this tournament, poker has become more popular than ever, especially for all the attention received in the media. It also worth to mention that there is an online version of this competition, World Online Poker Championship, which is becoming very demanded in the best online poker rooms, and that once again serve to prove the success of poker.