World Series of Poker tournament qualifiers run nearly all year long as people try and get into the main event. World Series of Poker tournaments have become very popular with thousands of people playing in them every year.
There are actually hundreds of thousands of people that play World Series Poker tournament qualifiers each year trying to get into the main event. As online poker has exploded in popularity, the World Series of Poker has led the way. In 2003 the evolution of the WSOP continued into a new era with the victory of unknown Chris Moneymaker. He entered a $40 online satellite tournament to qualify for the main event and ended up at the final table, which he won, claiming a $2,500,000 cash prize.
Television ratings have increased on World Series of Poker action and in just 10 years the prize money went from $7.7 million to $49 million and in 2004 the World Series of Poker yielded the highest first place cash prize for any sporting event with a $5 million amount. That amount increased nearly three-fold as in 2006 the first place prize for the World Series of Poker main event was $12 million dollars. That number dropped in 2007 to just over $8 million as online WSOP qualifiers dropped.
