In 2003, the World Series of Poker captured the imagination of a generation of would-be poker players. Nearly 20 years later, can the WSOP catch lightning in a bottle twice and possibly pull online poker out of the legislative quagmire it now inhabits?
A confluence of events led to the Poker Boom of the mid-aughts. The birth of online poker in the late-1990s, the release of Rounders in 1998 (an instant cult classic on video), the invention of the hole-card camera, Positively Fifth Street landing on the New York Times bestseller list in 2003, ESPN’s decision to increase its 2003 World Series of Poker (WSOP) coverage, and an amateur poker player named Moneymaker conquering a field of professional poker players to win the 2003 WSOP Main Event.
Outside of online poker, the common thread is the WSOP. The hole card camera changed the ESPN broadcast of the WSOP. The Rounders plotline includes Mike McDermott’s dream of playing in the WSOP. Positively Fifth Street tells the story of journalist James McManus’s improbable run to the 2000 WSOP Main Event final table.
There is no denying the WSOP was pivotal to the Poker Boom. It provided the backdrop and gave wanna-be poker players a clear goal. Like athletes, everyone was suddenly familiar with the names of the best poker players, and the game was broadcast all over the airwaves.
The Downfall
Poker’s time in the sun was relatively fleeting, a bright flash lasting from about 2004 to 2006 followed by a multi-year fade culminating in the supernova event known as Black Friday. During its short time in the sun, poker captured the country like few other fads.
The products of that era, the aspirational twenty-somethings, are now forty-somethings with families, jobs, and mortgages. For the current crop of twenty-somethings, references to Chris Moneymaker or Rounders have the same cache as other pop culture fads long past their expiration date. They may have heard of it, but its significance isn’t well-understood.
Like an archeological dig site, only remnants remain of the confluence of events that gave us the Poker Boom. At the end of the day, another poker renaissance would look quite different, predicated on legalization across the U.S. But for that to happen, a new series of events is needed to reignite the poker flames.
And once again, the WSOP needs to be the spark.
Can the WSOP Bring About Change?
For 2022, the WSOP has a new lease on life. This year’s iteration will be the first truly post-COVID series and will take place at the tournament’s new casino homes of Paris and Bally’s (soon-to-be Horseshoe), placing the WSOP on the Las Vegas Strip for the first time in its 50-plus year history.
All it needs now is a story to capture the imagination of a new generation of poker players.
Luck will play a significant role, but as the saying of unknown origins goes, “the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have.” And it’s time for the poker world to get to work.
What I mean by that is rallying behind storylines that have mass appeal. The community needs to ignore the antics of the loudmouth pro, the accomplishments of the young, rich prodigy, and the latest fiasco that poker so effortlessly creates. What poker needs to excite the general public is a Moneymaker—an older amateur player, a woman, or a feel-good story that everyone can get behind without the typical criticism the community likes to lob at the protagonist’s abilities.
Headlines Lead to Legalization
Poker’s big challenge is to get into the news cycle. Not the industry news cycle, but the mainstream news cycle. If the WSOP can grab some good, positive attention, it could spill over into the legalization debate.
Part of legal sports betting’s rapid spread was the attention it received from the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn PASPA. The news cycle helped sports betting legalization efforts catch on (just as it did for daily fantasy sports several years before), and as it caught on, it maintained its place in the news cycle spurring more legalization.
If poker is in the news, it will be impossible for lawmakers to ignore legalization questions or, more accurately, lack of legalization. And it will become much easier to pose the question if close to 10,000 people are willing to pay $10,000 to play in the World Series of Poker Main Event, doesn’t that speak to the game’s appeal and the need to provide these players with a safe, regulated place to play poker online?
