The World Series of Poker dates to 1970, when Benny Binion brought seven well-known players to Binion’s Horseshoe for a no-limit hold’em cash game. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
There was no conventional tournament prize structure. At the end, the players voted on who had performed best, which fixes the scale of the thing at the start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The bracelet came later and became tournament poker’s most recognized championship trophy. Everything else about tournament poker has been argued over or rebranded, and a bracelet count is still one of the numbers by which a player’s tournament record is measured.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The scale change is easy to date. The 2003 Main Event drew 839 entrants. The 2004 edition drew 2,576, a 207% increase in a single year and the largest year-over-year jump in the event’s history. The televised 2003 Main Event and Chris Moneymaker’s unlikely victory became central catalysts for that growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Hole Card Camera at Channel 4<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\nThe technology arrived in Britain early. Henry Orenstein held a United States patent for an under-the-table hole card camera, and Channel 4 put the concept to work on Late Night Poker<\/em> in 1999, building a show around knowing what the players were holding.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe format established a model that remains familiar. A fixed table, commentary written for a viewer who can see every hand, and episodes cut to the shape of the hands rather than the clock. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before that camera, a broadcast could largely show faces and betting patterns, which was difficult to follow for anyone who did not already understand the game. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
After it, the viewer knew more than every player at the table, and poker acquired a dramatic structure on screen that had previously been difficult to capture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
ESPN and the 2003 Main Event<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\nESPN had covered the WSOP before, and the 2002 broadcast included an early version of the hole card view. The 2003 coverage is where the two things came together. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chris Moneymaker, an accountant who had reached the table through an $86 online satellite, beat Sammy Farha heads-up for $2.5 million and the only bracelet of his career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The brand story is what ESPN did afterward. The network turned the Main Event into serialized television, allowing viewers to follow the field toward a final table rather than treating the tournament as a single annual highlight package. The event existed for much of its wider audience as television rather than as a week in a downtown casino.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That relationship between broadcast exposure and online qualification remains part of the tournament ecosystem today, with GG Poker<\/a> connected to the modern WSOP.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe episode order mattered as much as the coverage. ESPN’s 30 for 30<\/em> later returned to the story as Sparking the Boom<\/em>, which is a reasonable summary of what televised poker and an unlikely champion helped set in motion.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe World Poker Tour on Travel Channel<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\nThe World Poker Tour started in 2002, created by the attorney and television producer Steve Lipscomb<\/a>, who ran WPT Enterprises as chief executive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Its debut season ran through late 2002 and early 2003 and finished with the WPT Championship at the Bellagio in April 2003, with the first season airing on Travel Channel in the spring of that year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It became one of the network’s signature programs, which helped change the category. A single annual event in Las Vegas is a special. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
A tour with stops, a season and a championship is a schedule a network can build around, and that seasonal structure became a model for many tournament series that followed.<\/p>\n\n\n
\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.companieshistory.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/The-World-Poker-Tour-on-Travel-Channel-scaled.webp\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nStudio Poker Shows on GSN and NBC<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\nTwo shows then took the televised format away from large tournament floors. High Stakes Poker<\/em> premiered on GSN on 16 January 2006 and ran seven original seasons through 2011, with Gabe Kaplan and AJ Benza becoming closely associated with its commentary. <\/p>\n\n\n\nPoker After Dark<\/em> followed on NBC in 2007, putting small invited fields into an intimate studio format that included tournament-style and cash-game episodes.<\/p>\n\n\n\nNeither show depended on the scale of a major tournament field, and both demonstrated the entertainment value of hearing professionals talk through the social rhythm of a hand. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Table conversation, personality and the long pauses surrounding difficult decisions could carry a broadcast alongside the cards themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Card Player in Print<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\nBefore much of the television money arrived, the results had to be written down somewhere. Phil and June Field published the first issue of Card Player<\/em> in October 1988 to give the poker world a regular record of news, results and strategy. <\/p>\n\n\n\nLinda Johnson bought the company in 1993, and Barry Shulman acquired the bulk of it in 1998 and became publisher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For much of the period before online databases became dominant, Card Player<\/em> functioned as one of poker’s principal published records. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The format established a model that remains familiar. A fixed table, commentary written for a viewer who can see every hand, and episodes cut to the shape of the hands rather than the clock. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before that camera, a broadcast could largely show faces and betting patterns, which was difficult to follow for anyone who did not already understand the game. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
After it, the viewer knew more than every player at the table, and poker acquired a dramatic structure on screen that had previously been difficult to capture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
ESPN and the 2003 Main Event<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\nESPN had covered the WSOP before, and the 2002 broadcast included an early version of the hole card view. The 2003 coverage is where the two things came together. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chris Moneymaker, an accountant who had reached the table through an $86 online satellite, beat Sammy Farha heads-up for $2.5 million and the only bracelet of his career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The brand story is what ESPN did afterward. The network turned the Main Event into serialized television, allowing viewers to follow the field toward a final table rather than treating the tournament as a single annual highlight package. The event existed for much of its wider audience as television rather than as a week in a downtown casino.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That relationship between broadcast exposure and online qualification remains part of the tournament ecosystem today, with GG Poker<\/a> connected to the modern WSOP.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe episode order mattered as much as the coverage. ESPN’s 30 for 30<\/em> later returned to the story as Sparking the Boom<\/em>, which is a reasonable summary of what televised poker and an unlikely champion helped set in motion.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe World Poker Tour on Travel Channel<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\nThe World Poker Tour started in 2002, created by the attorney and television producer Steve Lipscomb<\/a>, who ran WPT Enterprises as chief executive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Its debut season ran through late 2002 and early 2003 and finished with the WPT Championship at the Bellagio in April 2003, with the first season airing on Travel Channel in the spring of that year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It became one of the network’s signature programs, which helped change the category. A single annual event in Las Vegas is a special. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
A tour with stops, a season and a championship is a schedule a network can build around, and that seasonal structure became a model for many tournament series that followed.<\/p>\n\n\n
\n<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nStudio Poker Shows on GSN and NBC<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\nTwo shows then took the televised format away from large tournament floors. High Stakes Poker<\/em> premiered on GSN on 16 January 2006 and ran seven original seasons through 2011, with Gabe Kaplan and AJ Benza becoming closely associated with its commentary. <\/p>\n\n\n\nPoker After Dark<\/em> followed on NBC in 2007, putting small invited fields into an intimate studio format that included tournament-style and cash-game episodes.<\/p>\n\n\n\nNeither show depended on the scale of a major tournament field, and both demonstrated the entertainment value of hearing professionals talk through the social rhythm of a hand. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Table conversation, personality and the long pauses surrounding difficult decisions could carry a broadcast alongside the cards themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Card Player in Print<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\nBefore much of the television money arrived, the results had to be written down somewhere. Phil and June Field published the first issue of Card Player<\/em> in October 1988 to give the poker world a regular record of news, results and strategy. <\/p>\n\n\n\nLinda Johnson bought the company in 1993, and Barry Shulman acquired the bulk of it in 1998 and became publisher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For much of the period before online databases became dominant, Card Player<\/em> functioned as one of poker’s principal published records. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The episode order mattered as much as the coverage. ESPN’s 30 for 30<\/em> later returned to the story as Sparking the Boom<\/em>, which is a reasonable summary of what televised poker and an unlikely champion helped set in motion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The World Poker Tour started in 2002, created by the attorney and television producer Steve Lipscomb<\/a>, who ran WPT Enterprises as chief executive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Its debut season ran through late 2002 and early 2003 and finished with the WPT Championship at the Bellagio in April 2003, with the first season airing on Travel Channel in the spring of that year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It became one of the network’s signature programs, which helped change the category. A single annual event in Las Vegas is a special. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A tour with stops, a season and a championship is a schedule a network can build around, and that seasonal structure became a model for many tournament series that followed.<\/p>\n\n\n Two shows then took the televised format away from large tournament floors. High Stakes Poker<\/em> premiered on GSN on 16 January 2006 and ran seven original seasons through 2011, with Gabe Kaplan and AJ Benza becoming closely associated with its commentary. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Poker After Dark<\/em> followed on NBC in 2007, putting small invited fields into an intimate studio format that included tournament-style and cash-game episodes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Neither show depended on the scale of a major tournament field, and both demonstrated the entertainment value of hearing professionals talk through the social rhythm of a hand. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Table conversation, personality and the long pauses surrounding difficult decisions could carry a broadcast alongside the cards themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Before much of the television money arrived, the results had to be written down somewhere. Phil and June Field published the first issue of Card Player<\/em> in October 1988 to give the poker world a regular record of news, results and strategy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Linda Johnson bought the company in 1993, and Barry Shulman acquired the bulk of it in 1998 and became publisher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For much of the period before online databases became dominant, Card Player<\/em> functioned as one of poker’s principal published records. <\/p>\n\n\n\nThe World Poker Tour on Travel Channel<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nStudio Poker Shows on GSN and NBC<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Card Player in Print<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n