In 1979 the WSOP had its great breakthrough. The TV station CBS regularly broadcasted reports about the main event, the number of participants grew to more than 50, and therefore even the price pool grew immensely to an amount of more than half a million USD for the winning player. Hal Fowler was the first amateur player to win this Main Event and he won $270.000. In 1980, the 26 year old Stu Ungar won the event and entered the history books as the youngest WSOP Main Event winner. He successfully defended his title in 1981.

A legendary game

A legendary game took place in 1982. Jack Strauss had lost all his chips but one. With this chip he started the most legendary race to victory and in the end he won the Main Event!

WSOP now with Omaha Hi

Omaha became popular as a poker variant in the early 80s in Las Vegas and was offered at the WSOP for the first time in 1983. To further increase the participation of the WSOP the first satellites were played in 1983. In 1987 and 1988 Johnny Chan the „Orient Express“ won the WSOP. In 1989 he seemed to win the event for the third time, but in the end he was defeated by the upcoming Phil Hellmuth jr. This 24 year old guy beat the Hungarian age record and he was officially announced the youngest winner of the WSOP.

Stu Ungar, a WSOP legend

In 1990, Stu Ungar reappeared in the spotlight of the WSOP. At the Main Event, Ungar, whose drug abuse could be seen in his face, missed his chance for the title because of a collapse and he only won the 9th place. In 1991 Jack Binion for the first time in the history of the WSOP guaranteed a price money of $1 million for the winner of the Main Event. Brad Daughtery won this $1 million. The popularity of the WSOP continued to rise in the following years. In 1997 there were 300 participants in the Main Event. Billy Baxter persuaded his friend Stu Ungar to participate in the event and he sponsored his buy-in. This time Stu played better than in 1990 and he won the world championship for the third time. Shortly before the millennium the holecam has its breakthrough, so the viewers were no longer excluded from the play, but they were able to view exactly what player had what kind of cards. More than 500 players played in the Main Event 2000 and Chris „Jesus“ Ferguson was this years’ lucky winner.