The World Series of Poker: A card game redefined
Poker is a very popular card game all over the world and the World Series of Poker is the biggest event on the poker calendar. The card game is all about skill, bluffing and outwitting the competition. A lot of debate takes
place about the history of the game and also whether or not it is a sport or simply a recreational activity. Whether or not it is does not matter to the players though; they simply cannot get enough of playing the game and also dream of getting to the World
Series of Poker every year. This huge event brings together over 8000 players every year. The World Series also looks all set to grow even larger over the next few years.
The history of poker is disputed; some say it originated in Germany in the 15th century, while others say it is derived from the ancient Persian game of As Nas. Many people say that poker must have
originated from the Persian game, because the game of As Nas is played by pulling out 5 cards from the whole deck. Others though, claim that the modern version of the game came from the old French game of Poque, which could be found from the same region that
poker originated from. This theory is further compounded because the word poque means to bluff in French. But it seems a lot of different games influenced the founding of poker. Some even reject all these origin theories and instead say that it could be that
poker simply came into being on its own from people playing the game and could have been derived from a number of games and not simply the ones mentioned above. While the history of poker is disputed, the history of its biggest tournament can definitely be
traced.
The World Series of Poker started in 1970 in Las Vegas, Nevada; the first event saw only 6 participants. The tournament was very slow to take off and it was a whole 12 years before the event was able to even bring together
52 players. But slowly, the Series started to gain popularity during the 80s and in 1987 the event was able to bring together over 2000 of the best poker players in the world. The format of the tournament is that numerous smaller events take place and the
winner of each tournament gets a special bracelet and the total of the buy-in amount of the table they win. The World Series bracelet is one of the most coveted prizes in the whole sport of poker.
There are many different formats of poker that are played in the tournament, but the most popular one seems to be Texas Hold ‘Em with more than half the games played being played with this version. The winner of the Main
Event, which is the most coveted event in the whole Series, wins a multimillion dollar prize. Over the history of the tournament, Stu Ungar and Johnny Moss are the only two players to win the event three times. In 2009, the winner of the Main Event was Joe
Cada and he was the youngest player ever to win the World Series. The Main event of the 2010 event will take place in November of this year.
After saying all this we have to return to the question of whether the game of poker is a sport. Does it really matter though? The recreational activity of poker is played in a very strong, competitive format, and needs a
large amount of skill and talent to win and the only thing that is missing in poker being a true sport is that there is no physical activity involved in it. The World Series of Poker is large enough and popular enough to rival some of the other large scale
sports tournaments that take place all over the world. The sport of poker looks all set to grow in popularity and the World Series will slowly take over the world of card games very soon.
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