The World Series of Blackjack (WSOB) first started in the year 2004. It had been produced and created by the Game Show Network, GSN which is a cable television network. During the first two seasons, the commentators who hosted the tournament had been Max Rubin and Matt Vasgersian.
During its third season in the year 2006, the WSOB tournament had been aired weekly as a part of the Casino Night by GSN which then was re-named as Vegas Night along with the High Stakes Poker which was added to the regiment. The hosts too were changed to Ben Mezrich and John Fugelsang. The players competed for a grand prize of $1 million in the year 2006 and the event had been sponsored by the Las Vegas Hilton. Every year the tournament is hosted by a different casino.
Basically, the tournament comprises of eight one hour preliminary rounds which are then followed by two semi final events. There are also two wild card events and then a final match between the players. Every year, there are around 25 to 40 players who compete in the tournament who are some of the most well known names in the blackjack world like Hollywood Dave Stan, Ken Einiger and Ken Smith.
The first and second seasons
The first season of the World Series of Blackjack had started off with a bang. The winner in the first season had been a member of the very well known MIT blackjack team, MIT Mike. The top prize that year had been $100,000 and the event had been held at Mohegan Sun Casino and Resort. In the first season, there had only been a total of five games instead of eight games. However, the tournament had been a success.
The second season of the tournament had been held at the Las Vegas Golden Nugget. The top prize in the second season had been won by Ken Einiger, a total of $250,000. For the first two seasons, the tournament had been hosted by Matt Vasgersian and Max Rubin.
The following seasons
The third season of the tournament was held at the Las Vegas Hilton hotel and the top prize had again been raised to a total of $500,000. The new hosts for the season had been John Fugelsang and Ben Mezrich. Ben Mezrich had been a member of the MIT blackjack team and is known for his book, Bringing Down the House.
When the season four had premiered in the year 2007, the top prize had been raised to a total of $1,000,000. Quite a lot of famous players had joined the tournament with big names like Carolina Rhea, Orel Hershiser, the baseball star, Penn Jillette, the magician of Penn & Teller and many other celebrities.
The tournament is a closed tournament which means that the players are invited to participate in the tournament or they would have to compete in various satellite tournaments in order to win themselves a spot at the table. The tournament has been quite interesting since some of the rules of the tournament are intriguing.
