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