They call it the greatest poker tournament in the world and it lives up to this billing in every way imaginable. Held in Las Vegas over the early summer every year since 1970, the World Series of Poker not only brings together the greatest exponents of the game, it's also open for anyone to enter, either by winning any of the many qualifying tournaments held in the run-up or simply by buying themselves in with the requisite $10,000.
The biggest prize of the tournament is called the Main Event and in previous years this has been won by many of the all-time greats including Johnny Moss, Joe Cada and the aptly named Chris Moneymaker.
The venue for this year's WSOP, sponsored by 888Poker, was the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas where it ran from May 31st till July 18th. It was a big year in a whole lot of ways from the total number of entrants - an incredible 107,833 - to the biggest prize pot ever at $221,211,336.
This year in particular the WSOP also attracted more than its fair share of celebrity participants including, from the world of sport, Neymar and Max Kluse as well as ex-cricketer Shane Warne. Hollywood has always loved poker and tinsel-town was represented by director Nick Cassavetes and the actors James Woods and Ray Romano.
Many players also enjoyed great results at this year's record-breaking tournament including Roland Israelashvili with 13 wins and Ben Keeline who won a $1 million first prize in the Colossus II event. Four players also hit significant milestones in Las Vegas. Brian Rast, Fedor Holz and and Dan Smith all reached $5 million WSOP winnings this year and Joe Cada became only the 10th ever player to reach $10 million in World Series winnings.
Of the many titanic struggles that took place over the weeks of the WSOP many observers agree that the one that really stood out was between one of the $5 million winners, Brian Rast, and Justin Bonomo. Bonomo went into the game with four times as many chips as Rast but over a gruelling three hours of play Rast wore him down to take away the prize of $1,296,097 with a winning hand of a full house.
The Main Event was also one of the biggest ever with a total entry of 6,737 and this is why the first prize, which will be contested at the same venue in late October, is the highest ever at $8 million. Just nine players remain in the event, led by New Yorker Cliff Josephy who goes into it with 74,600,000 in chips and who must be the favourite to win it at this stage - but only time will tell.
So, all in all, WSOP 2016 has been hailed as a great success with big winners, healthy competition and more than a few surprises. So do you think you've got what it takes to be there in 2017?
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