Benny Binion owns Binions horseshoe where the largest poker tournament is held annually called the World Series of Poker or simply "WSOP". If you are interested in learning about the payouts of this world poker tournament you have to know where it came from. Benny Binion was a marketing genius, promoting his poker tournament nation wide from 1970 to 1977 as a "winner takes all" tournament. The WSOP has never been winner take all before, and the World Series probably never will. However, up until Binion came out with this idea, the previous rules were that players would designate the split up of the funds.
This was a new idea that no one had ever heard of. Before this, the players themselves would designate how the money is split-up. A player designating the split of pots isn't the same way it happens today. The standard chip designation was 25% of your chips would go to the player, and the other 75% would be taking to the cage and exchanged for cash.
In 1977, a legal investigation was conducted, because the idea of a winner-take-all tournament had been fabricated and the distribution of prize money, and operating procedures were grounds for action. The standard procedure was the 25/75 split of the chips. However, the federal broadcasting law wasn't enforced like it was on the rigged quiz show "twenty one".
Popular television network CBS was put in a rather odd position, after it drummed up its own version of the winner-take-all tournament. This tournament was in tennis, and featured tennis stars Jimmy Conners and Rod Laver in the finals. Connors and Laver would play a great final match only split the prize money. With Conners and Laver splitting the spoils, CBS was fined by the FCC and required to issue a public apology.
Splitting the money between the players was over in 1978 when Benny Binion told everyone that he was paying the top five. Benny did this cause he realized that it was only a matter of time before the FBI would conduct an investigation into the payouts at his tournament.
The top five players that participated in the event in 1978 were paid out. This new payout structure lasted until 1981 when Binion changed it again to the vastly growing field when Binion paid out the top nine players. Paying out nine spots lasted until 1986. With an overwhelming growth in entrants to 141 in 1987, it forced Binion to once again pay out more spots.
With the field on the rise, the WSOP would set records in upcoming years in not only attendance but payouts as well. Chris Moneymaker was the first to set the new standard in winnings, in 2003. In 2004, Binion paid out 225 players. In 2005, 560 were paid, and in 2006, 873 cashed in.
As you can see the WSOP has payout structure has grown very rapidly over the years, just like the game's popularity. The game now is being shown on ESPN which is the largest sporting network in the world on television. The WSOP has become a huge phenomenon. Its pretty hard to imagine having these types of fields back in the 1970's, but it is growing every year and now is well over 1,000 entrants.
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