A Year to Remember

Years from now, assume you are in a trivia game and the following question comes up: "In terms of the popularity of poker and how the public embraced the game, what was the most important year in poker history?" What would you say? Well, for my money, 2003 has to jump out as the obvious answer.

There are several reasons why 2003 was such a breakthrough year in the poker world. Some of them were as follows:

• First and foremost, it was the first season of the World Poker Tour (created by Steve Lipscomb and Lyle Berman). This was a series of championship poker tournaments that were televised in "prime time" on a weekly basis on the Travel Channel – and it was a smash hit.

• The largest world championship event (by far) in the history of the World Series of Poker took place in 2003. Perhaps more intriguing was the fact that it was an event that had extraordinary circumstances surrounding it: First-place prize money was a whopping $2.5 million, the winner's name was Moneymaker, and he qualified to play in the tournament at home by winning an online tournament for a $40 buy-in. Talk about a parlay!

• The year featured extended coverage of the WSOP on ESPN and the Showdown at the Sands on FOX SportsNet.

• Positively Fifth Street by Jim McManus was the first poker book ever to make the bestseller list (a must-read if you're a poker player).

• More than a dozen tournaments had prize pools of more than $1 million.

• There was a serious boom in the growth of online poker.

• The first-ever $25,000 buy-in championship poker event was held (the WPT championship at Bellagio).

• Hollywood celebrities embraced poker, as they played in World Poker Tour events as well as celebrity events.

• Card Player magazine began newsstand sales.

• The greatest television announcing team in history debuted – Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patten (just kidding; I thought for a moment that I was writing a guest column for Phil Hellmuth).

Poker is "on a roll." New players are continuing to enter the poker world and prize pools in tournaments continue to grow. Think about this: The total prize money for the first season of the WPT was $11 million. In the second season, that number will exceed $30 million! And look for more than 1,000 players in next year's $10,000 buy-in world championship event at the World Series of Poker. Poker has arrived – big-time.

For years, guys like Amarillo Slim, Doyle Brunson, Stu Ungar, Johnny Moss, Puggy Pearson, Chip Reese, and Johnny Chan were the most famous names in poker. Now, millions of non-poker players are familiar with the names Chris Moneymaker, Gus Hansen, Howard Lederer, Phil Ivey, David "DevilFish" Ulliott, Layne Flack, Alan Goehring, Scotty Nguyen, and Phil Hellmuth, because these are the guys who have done well in televised events. TV is powerful. If you want to become rich and famous in the poker world, win a televised event.

Now that the game has been accepted as being "cool" by the public, and the prize money is reaching astonishing amounts, there are still two things that have to happen in order to impress players that they have "arrived." First, substantial money must be added to the prize pools, and second, individuals must be sponsored by corporate America in championship events. The good news is – it's coming!

2003 was "a year to remember" in the poker world. I can't wait for 2004.

Happy New Year!

Mike Sexton is the host of PartyPoker.com and a commentator on the World Poker Tour.