WSOP Winners from 1970 to 2005
Reading about the WSOP winners during the last 35 years, is not only an interesting poker trivia for every poker fan and professional or recreational poker player. The list of the WSOP winners indicate the changes the huge poker event throughout the years, which symbolizes the changes in the popularity of the poker game.
While the first WSOP winners got to take home a total of 5 digits, the 2005 WSOP winner won 7,500,000 dollars. The number of participants in the World Series of Poker grew as well: from 52 participant in 1982 to 2,141 participants in 1987. By the 2002 WSOP more than 7,500 poke players took part in the event.
The first World Series of Poker tournament took place in 1970 at the legendary Horseshoe casino run by the poker legend Benny Binion. The first of the WSOP winners was poker legendary player Johnny Moss who was declared as the first poker world champion after a democratic vote. Johnny Moss won the title two years in a row, until Thomas Preston aka Amarillo Slim beat him in the 1972 WSOP Main Event. Johnny Moss won his title back in the 1974 WSOP Main Event.
Other legendary WSOP winners include Stu Ungar, known as The Kid, who won the title in 1980 and 1981and back again in 1997, a year and a half before his was found dead in his room at the Oasis Motel in Las Vegas. The last 5 WSOP winners are Joseph Hachem who won 7.5 million dollars in the 2005 WSOP, Greg Raymer who won 5 million dollars in 2004, Chris Moneymaker who took home 2.5 million dollars in 2003, Robert Varkonyi who earned 2 million dollars in 2002 and Carlos Mortensen who won only 1.5 million dollars in 2001.