Poker has long been a popular game but even more so with the arrival of poker tournaments. Tournaments made poker accessible to the masses. Later on in the 1990s the games started to be broadcast making it a spectator sport, and as players grew in fame and notoriety strategy books about the game were released. Soon poker became a common recreational activity and with the continued increase of coverage for tournaments, poker has not looked back. 
World Series of Poker
Of course the big name in poker tournaments is the World Series of Poker Beginning back in 1970, the World Series of Poker is a number of poker tournaments that are held, as of 2005 in Las Vegas. Started by Benny Binion, the original tournament featured just seven of the top players in the world with just one tournament. Nowadays the tournament sees thousands of participants and hosts a wide number of different events and tournaments. The main event however is still a $10,000 no-limit Hold’Em which attracts more people very single year. The winner wins cash to the order of multi-millions and wins the accolade of World Poker Champion. Since 2014 the series has contained 65 events covering all types of poker variants though the majority do focus on Hold’em.
World Poker Tour
Another big series, this is a recent one only beginning in 2002. The World Poker Tour (WPT) became a TV show and with the yearly broadcasting of the WSOP, helped push poker into the limelight. The show focuses on champions and culminates each year with the WPT Championship. As with other tournaments the extra draw here is that anyone who can pay the buy in can play, and they will play against professionals with the incentive a potential huge prize win. Tournaments have, and continue to increase the popularity of poker the world over.
