Poker payouts can be very confusing as to whether the number of spots is paid out, or the percent paid to the player. Learning how poker payouts came about, you have to know where it all started. If you go to Las Vegas you will definitely find a casino called Binions Horseshoe. Binions is the place where the World Series of Poker or simply “WSOP” is held. Casino owner Benny Binion is a marketing genius, coming up with the idea of ​​having a winner-take-all poker tournament.

This is a new idea that no one has ever heard of. Before this, the online gambling sites themselves would point out how the money was split-up. A player points to a pot breaking not in the same way it happened today. The standard chip designation is 25% of your chips will go to the player, and the other 75% will be taken to the cage and exchanged for cash.

A legal investigation ensued, as the winner took – all tournament ideas raised red flags. This raised the flag cause of the fabrication of prize money, and a somewhat suspicious operating procedure. If you’ve ever heard of the old quiz show, where the game was rigged called “twenty one,” federal broadcasting laws weren’t enforced in this case, like it was there.

Popular television network CBS is put in a rather odd position, after knocking up its own version of the winner-takes-all tournament. The tournament is in tennis, and features tennis stars Jimmy Conners and Rod Laver in the final. Connors and Laver will play a major final match splitting only the prize money. With Conners and Laver splitting the booty, CBS was fined by the FCC and required to issue a public apology.

Splitting the money between the players came to an end in 1978 when Benny Binion told everyone he was paying five. Benny’s doing this causes him to realize that it is only a matter of time before the FBI will investigate into the payouts in his tournaments.

A new payout structure was introduced in the 1978 World Series of Poker tournament by Benny Binion. The top five players who participated in that year’s main event all received payments. Binion paid the top five players in the World Series of poker main events until 1981. He began paying the last nine players. The payout of the last nine players lasted until 1986. The number of entrants entering the World Series of Poker tournament was 141. This forced Benny Binion to expand the payout structure again.

With the field increasing, the WSOP will set records in the years to come for not only attendance but payouts as well. Chris Moneymaker was the first to set a new standard in winning, in 2003. In 2004, Binion paid out 225 players. In 2005, 560 were paid, and in 2006, 873 were cashed.

The WSOP is now featured on ESPN bringing its biggest sport seeing residents to tournament poker, making it bigger every year. It’s hard to imagine owning this kind of field in the mid-1970s, but where the game has come from, and the steps at which it has been taken to get there is amazing. As you can see the payout structure has grown monumentally over the years, as has the game’s popularity.