Poker payouts can be very confusing whether its the amount of spots paid, or the percent paid to the players. Learning how poker payouts came about, you have to know where it all started. If you go to Las Vegas you certainly will come across a casino called Binions Horseshoe. Binions is the venue at which the World Series of Poker or simply “WSOP” is held. The owner of the casino Benny Binion was a marketing genius, coming up with an idea to have a winner-take-all poker tournament.

Before the tournament would start, the players voted on various ways for the pot to be split. Players would resume playing typically using 25% of their previous chips. 75% of the other chips were exchanged for cash at the cage. Players designating distribution of the pots, isn’t how it happens today but that’s how it started.

25% usage of previous chips and 75% exchanged for cash was the standard operation procedure and prize distribution until 1977. The idea of a winner-take-all event was fabricated and the prize distribution and standing operating procedures where grounds for a legal investigation. The federal broadcasting law wasn’t enforced even though such a practice like the scandal of the quiz show “Twenty One” was rigged. This law wasn’t even outlawed.

Suddenly, in the mid 1970′s, CBS began to broadcast winner-take-all tennis tournaments in Las Vegas. These tennis tournaments were held in Caesars Palace. The winner would win $100,000. Tennis players Rod Lacer and Jimmy Conners were splitting the prize money. It was suppose to be winner-take-all. They both confessed to what they did. This left CBS with a hefty fine from the FCC and issuing a public apology. Sporting events were being shunned, especially the World Series of Poker.

Splitting the money between the players was over in 1978 when Benny Binion told everyone that he was paying the top five. Benny did this cause he realized that it was only a matter of time before the FBI would conduct an investigation into the payouts at his tournament.

A new payout structure was introduced at the 1978 World Series of Poker tournament by Benny Binion. The top five players who participated in the main event of that year all received a payout. Binion paid the top five players in the World Series of Poker main event until 1981. He began to pay the last nine players. Paying the last nine players lasted until 1986. The number of entrants entering the World Series of Poker tournament was 141. It forced Benny Binion to expand his payout structure again.

World Series of Poker continued to grow each year, so did the players who got a payout. Chris Moneymaker had a shocking victory in 2003, which resulted in one of the greatest leaps in World Series of Poker history. In 2004, 225 players were paid. In 2005, the numbers jumped ever higher with 560. An Earth shattering record of 873 players in 2006.

The WSOP is now shown on ESPN which brings its largest sports viewing population to the poker tournament, making it bigger every year. Its hard to imagine having these kind of fields in the mid 1970′s, but where the game has come, and the steps at which it has taken to get there are amazing. As you can see the payout structure has grown monumental over the years, just like the games popularity.