Hold’em was created in the town of Robson, Texas, sometime in the mid-20th century. It was introduced to Vegas in 1967 by a group of Texas poker players which included Doyle Brunson and Amarillo Slim.

The only place that you could find hold’em action in the late ’60s and early ’70s was at the Golden Nugget. When Tom Moore held the first poker tournament at the Second Annual Gambling Fraternity Convention in 1969, Jack Binion bought the rights for the tournament the next year, and the World Series of Poker was born.

The game slowly grew in popularity over the years until Chris Moneymaker won the main event at the WSOP in 2003. The story of the amateur winning $2.5 million, and the ability for players to play online, launched the game to levels of popularity the old Texas pros could never have imagined.