The three most popular poker variants are spread in casinos and poker rooms worldwide and can be divided into the following groups:

* Draw poker: Games in which players are dealt a complete hand, hidden, and then improve it by replacing cards. The most common of these is Five-card draw.
* Stud poker: Games in which each player receives a combination of face-up cards and face-down cards in multiple betting rounds. The most common of these are Seven-card stud and Five-card stud.
* Community card poker: Games in which each player's incomplete hidden hand is combined with shared face-up cards. The most common of these are Texas hold 'em and Omaha hold 'em.

Here are more common rule variations:

1. High-low split: the highest and lowest hands split the pot. Generally there is a qualifier for the low hand. For example, the low hand must have 5 cards with ranks of 8 or less. In most high-low games theThough called "stud", this is a combination stud/community card game that was popular at MIT in the 1960s[citation needed], in which players receive individual downcards, individual upcards, and community cards. Many variations on this are possible by changing what kinds of cards and how many are dealt in various rounds.

One difficulty with such a combination is deciding the betting order: in stud games, the player with the best upcards showing bets first in each round (except sometimes the first, where the worst upcard is forced to begin the betting with a Bring-in). In community card games, each betting round begins with the same player (because there generally are no upcards), making it more positional. Oxford stud chooses to use the players' individual upcards for determining order, which makes it play more like stud.

First, each player is dealt two downcards and one upcard as in seven-card stud, followed by a first betting round. Like stud, the game is usually played with a Bring-in, the lowest upcard being forced to pay it, and betting follows after that. After the first round is complete, two community cards are dealt to the table, followed by a second betting round, beginning with the player with the highest-ranking incomplete poker hand (as in stud) made from his upcard plus the two community cards. For example, if one player has a K upcard, and a second player has a 7 upcard, and the community cards are T-7 (T = 10), the second player bets first (since he has a pair of 7s, and the other player only has K-high). Then a second upcard is dealt to each player, followed by a third betting round, again beginning with the player who can make the best partial hand with his two upcards and the board. Finally, a third community card is dealt to table, followed by a fourth betting round and showdown. Note that as with Mississippi stud, each player has five cards of his hand exposed at this point (two of his own plus three on the board), so it is possible for a flush or straight to be the high hand for the purpose of first bet. At showdown each player makes the best five-card hand he can from the four cards he is dealt plus the three community cards, in any combination. This game is usually played High-low split.
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Below are the past winners of the main event, together with brief information about each year's main event. For more information, view the article on the WSOP for that specific year.

Year	Winner	Winning hand	Prize (US$)	Entrants	Runner-Up	Losing hand
1970	Johnny Moss	n/a, awarded by vote	n/a	7	n/a
1971	Johnny Moss		30,000sm=n	6	Walter "Puggy" Pearson
1972	"Amarillo Slim" Preston	K J	80,000sm=n	8	Walter "Puggy" Pearson	6 6
1973	Walter "Puggy" Pearson	A♠ 7♠	130,000sm=n	13	Johnny Moss	K♥ J♠
1974	Johnny Moss	3♥ 3♠	160,000sm=n	16	Crandall Addington	A♣ 2♣
1975	Brian "Sailor" Roberts	9♠ 9♥	210,000sm=n	21	Bob Hooks	A♣ K♦
1976	Doyle Brunson	10♠ 2♠	220,000sm=n	22	Jesse Alto	A♠ J♦
1977	Doyle Brunson	10♠ 2♥	340,000sm=n	34	Gary Berland	8♥ 5♣
1978	Bobby Baldwin	Q♦ Q♣	210,000sm=n	42	Crandall Addington	9♦ 9♣
1979	Hal Fowler	7♠ 6♦	270,000sm=n	54	Bobby Hoff	A♣ A♥
1980	Stu Ungar	5♠ 4♠	385,000sm=n	73	Doyle Brunson	A♥ 7♠
1981	Stu Ungar	A♥ Q♥	375,000sm=n	75	Perry Green	10♣ 9♦
1982	Jack Straus	A♥ 10♠	520,000sm=n	104	Dewey Tomko	A♦ 4♦
1983	Tom McEvoy	Q♦ Q♠	540,000sm=n	108	Rod Peate	K♦ J♦
1984	Jack Keller	10♥ 10♠	660,000sm=n	132	Byron Wolford	6♥ 4♥
1985	Bill Smith	3♠ 3♥	700,000sm=n	140	T. J. Cloutier	A♦ 3♣
1986	Berry Johnston	A♠ 10♥	570,000sm=n	141	Mike Harthcock	A♦ 8♦
1987	Johnny Chan	A♠ 9♣	625,000sm=n	152	Frank Henderson	4♦ 4♣
1988	Johnny Chan	J♣ 9♣	700,000sm=n	167	Erik Seidel	Q♣ 7♥
1989	Phil Hellmuth Jr	9♠ 9♣	755,000sm=n	178	Johnny Chan	A♠ 7♠
1990	Mansour Matloubi	6♥ 6♠	895,000sm=n	194	Hans Lund	4♦ 4♣
1991	Brad Daugherty	K♠ J♠	1,000,000sm=n	215	Don Holt	7♥ 3♥
1992	Hamid Dastmalchi	8♥ 4♣	1,000,000sm=n	201	Tom Jacobs	J♦ 7♠
1993	Jim Bechtel	J♣ 6♥	1,000,000sm=n	220	Glenn Cozen	7♠ 4♦
1994	Russ Hamilton	K♠ 8♥	1,000,000sm=n	268	Hugh Vincent	8♣ 5♥
1995	Dan Harrington	9♦ 8♦	1,000,000sm=n	273	Howard Goldfarb	A♥ 7♣
1996	Huck Seed	9♦ 8♦	1,000,000sm=n	295	Bruce Van Horn	K♣ 8♣
1997	Stu Ungar	A♥ 4♣	1,000,000sm=n	312	John Strzemp	A♠ 8♣
1998	Scotty Nguyen	J♦ 9♣	1,000,000sm=n	350	Kevin McBride	Q♥ 10♥
1999	Noel Furlong	5♣ 5♦	1,000,000sm=n	393	Alan Goehring	6♥ 6♣
2000	Chris Ferguson	A♠ 9♣	1,500,000sm=n	512	T. J. Cloutier	A♦ Q♣
2001	Juan Carlos Mortensen	K♣ Q♣	1,500,000sm=n	613	Dewey Tomko	A♠ A♥
2002	Robert Varkonyi	Q♦ 10♠	2,000,000sm=n	631	Julian Gardner	J♣ 8♣
2003	Chris Moneymaker	5♦ 4♠	2,500,000sm=n	839	Sam Farha	J♥ 10♦
2004	Greg Raymer	8♠ 8♦	5,000,000sm=n	2,576	David Williams	A♥ 4♠
2005	Joe Hachem	7♣ 3♠	7,500,000sm=n	5,619	Steve Dannenmann	A♦ 3♣
2006	Jamie Gold	Q♠ 9♣	12,000,000sm=n	8,773	Paul Wasicka	10♥ 10♠
2007	Jerry Yang	8♦ 8♣	8,250,000sm=n	6,358	Tuan Lam	A♦ Q♦
2008	Peter Eastgate	A♦ 5♠	9,152,416sm=n	6,844	Ivan Demidov	4♥ 2♥

[edit] Player of the Year

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The World Series of Poker (WSOP) is "the oldest, largest, most prestigious, and most media-hyped gaming competition in the world".[2] It is held annually in Las Vegas. The first WSOP occurred in 1970 was an invitational wherein Benny Binion invited six of the best known poker players to The Horseshoe Casino. At first, the WSOP grew slowly. It took twelve years before the event drew 52 participants in 1982.[2] In the early 1980s satellites were introduced allowing people to win their way into the various events for less than the full entry fees.[2] By 1987, there were over 2,100 entrants into the tournament.[2] Participation peaked in 2006, with 8,773 people participating in the Main Event alone.[j]

The first World Series of Poker was not a freeze out tournament, but rather an event with a set start and stop time with the winner determined by secret ballot.[3] In 1973, a second event, five-card stud was added. Over the years most of the major poker variants have been played at one time or another. Since 2007, the WSOP has consisted of 55 events. While events traditionally take place over one or more consecutive days during the series in June and July, in 2008 the Main Event final table was delayed until November. The winner of each event wins a World Series of Poker bracelet and a monetary prize based on the number of entrants and buy-in amounts. A World Series of Poker bracelet is considered the most coveted prize or trophy a poker player can win, with one from the Main Event revered above all others.[4] Since 1976, a bracelet has been awarded to the winner of every event at the annual WSOP. WSOP victories prior to 1976 are also known as "bracelets". Most of the major poker variants are featured, though in recent years over half of the events have been variants of Texas hold 'em.

The series culminates with the $10,000 no-limit hold'em "Main Event", which since 2004 has attracted entrants numbering in the thousands. The victor receives a multi-million dollar prize. The winner of the World Series of Poker Main Event is considered to be the World Champion of Poker.[5]

Since its inception, Stu Ungar is the only player to have won the Main Event three times. Johnny Moss also holds three Main Event titles, however the first win was not played in the current tournament format but by a vote making Ungar the only three-time champion in terms of actual victories. Moss (if the first time win by vote is counted), Ungar, Doyle Brunson, and Johnny Chan are the only people who have won the Main Event for two consecutive years. Johnny Chan's second victory in 1988 was featured on the 1998 film Rounders. Phil Hellmuth holds multiple WSOP records: most bracelets (11), WSOP cashes (68) and most WSOP final tables (41).[6] The current Main Event bracelet winner, Peter Eastgate is the youngest person to win the Main Event.[7]
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