The 2003 World Series of Poker

All you can say about the 2003 World Series of Poker (WSOP) is, "Wow." It was an amazingly well-run tournament with a Who's Who list of champions, including six double bracelet winners. And the $10,000 buy-in no-limit hold'em championship event shattered its record set last year with 839 players! The WSOP is incredible for bringing exposure to the poker world.

Let's start out with what I call the "Ripley's Believe It or Not feat" of this year's WSOP – six players (yes, six – and all are poker superstars) winning two bracelets each. Trust me, it's not easy to win a bracelet at the WSOP. Three of the double bracelet winners are former world champions (Chris Ferguson, Phil Hellmuth, and Johnny Chan), and the other three are poker greats Layne Flack, John Juanda, and Men Nguyen. These guys certainly deserve a tip of the hat for their performances.

The theme of the 2003 WSOP was, "The cream rises to the top." And, it did. In addition to the two-time winners mentioned above, numerous former title holders captured bracelets this year. They included former world champions Doyle Brunson, Huck Seed, and Carlos Mortensen, as well as poker greats Erik Seidel, O'Neil Longson, Mickey Appleman, and Daniel Negreanu.

It was really fun to watch the all-time bracelet race. The legendary Brunson started the 2003 WSOP with eight titles, one ahead of both Hellmuth and Chan. Brunson captured his ninth bracelet the first week of the tournament. Not to be outdone, Hellmuth and Chan quickly answered the call. Phil won a tournament to get back within one of Doyle, and then Chan immediately won the next tournament he played. Then, Chan won again, and, "bang," Phil won his second tournament to put them in a three-way tie for first place with nine bracelets each.

You may be wondering, "How do these same players keep winning all the time?" Well, the answer stood out like a sore thumb this year. It was the structures. The levels increased moderately (especially at the final table), and this gave the players plenty of time to play.

Let me explain. In some of the past years, final-table play didn't start until 4 p.m., and for the most part, the tournaments ended at around 7 p.m. because of the relatively fast structures. This year, with a much more gradual increase in the limits, final-table play started at 2 p.m. and often lasted until at least 10 p.m. Generally speaking, the slower the structure, the more likely it is that the best players will win.

Players are still buzzing about the size of the field for the championship event. The jump from 631 players in 2002 to 839 in 2003 represents the largest increase (33 percent) since the fields for the WSOP became large. This increase can be credited to a number of factors, including the growth in the popularity of poker, the exposure the World Poker Tour has brought to poker, the online poker explosion, the support of casinos around the world that send players to the WSOP, the popularity of supersatellites, and the fact that everyone who plays poker seriously at all wants to play in poker's premier event.

Once you get in, however, your work has just begun. Playing five grueling days under intense pressure and heavy media coverage without much sleep is the ultimate test for a poker player. Congratulations to Chris Moneymaker, the new world champion of poker.

The 2003 World Series of Poker – "Wow!" Take care.

Mike Sexton is the host for PartyPoker.com and a commentator on the World Poker Tour (which can be seen every Wednesday on the Travel Channel).