Wed, 03/09/2011 – 20:31 – PokerPages Staff

#5 – 2002 Launch of World Poker Tour
Televised poker is now so ubiquitous it’s hard to remember that it wasn’t always so.  Then in 2002, the WPT hit the screens and boosted the popularity of poker overnight.  We might never have seen today’s international tournament poker circuit were it not for this show.

#3 – 2004 WSOP changes hands to Harrah’s
Binion’s Horseshoe once owned the WSOP.  But that all changed in 2004, when the giant Harrah’s corporation bought the tournament.  They immediately sold the hotel and moved the WSOP to the Rio All-Suites Hotel and Casino, where it’s been burgeoning ever since.

#4 – 2004 PokerStars EPT is born
The brain-child of TV director and poker aficionado John Duthie and PokerStars, the European Poker Tour was launched in 2004 as a kind of European sibling of the WSOP.  Since then, it’s become a sensational international success story, making Euro-millionaires of its winners most of whom come from around the world to take part.

#2 – 2006 UIGEA nukes poker
The world of poker took a serious torpedo hit in 2006, when former President George Bush signed the notorious Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act into law.  Instantly, major companies like PartyGaming and PartyPoker were forced to pull out of the US market.  The industry is still strong, but it’s definitely been dented by this Act.

#1 – 2003 The Moneymaker Effect
This will go into the record books as one of the most jaw-dropping – and inspirational – poker events of all time.  Chris Moneymaker came from nowhere to wipe out 837 other players and beat Sam Farha heads-up at the Main Event and went home $2.5 million richer.  In one move, he became the first non-pro and the first online qualifier ever to win the WSOP Main Event.