This year’s World Series of Poker will be bigger and better than one could have ever imagined even a few short years ago,  and purses are set to dwarf the winnings of previous years.

It’s not a question of  "if"  it’s a matter of  "how much?"   In fact,  the winner of this year’s main event the $10,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em tournament,  the single event that crowns poker’s king for a year will likely walk away with more money than was paid out to all the in-the-money finishers in all of the events for the entire WSOP only a few short years ago.

In 2003,  at the beginning of the poker boom,  a then record number of 839 players entered the main event.  Last year that record was topped by more than 300 percent!  In case you’ve been hibernating on a deserted island with Robinson Crusoe or the cast of Survivor and haven’t heard the news,  the 2003 event marked the coming of the online gaming community into poker’s premier event.  Chris Moneymaker won it "yes,  that’s his real name"  a 27 year-old accountant from Tennessee who was working two jobs to support his wife and infant daughter who parlayed a $40 entry fee in an online satellite event into a $2.5 million payday for winning the 2003 World Series of Poker.

When all the shouting was over and done I found myself standing next to Horseshoe owner Becky Binion Behnen and asked her how many players she anticipated for the main event in 2004.   She smiled and said,  "I guess we might have as many as 1,000."  I thought she erred on the side of caution and in a column for Card Player Magazine entitled,  "That’s My Number and I’m Sticking to It,"  I predicted 1,150 entrants.   I thought I was conservative too,  but I might have been swayed somewhat by Becky’s estimate.   After all,  she owned the joint.  Or did.

For a while it seemed like there might not even be a 2004 World Series of Poker.  U.S. marshals entered Binion's Horseshoe on a January morning in 2004 to seize $1.9 million to satisfy debts owed to the Southern Nevada Culinary and Bartenders Pension Trust Fund and the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union Welfare Fund.  That action forced the closure of the 52-year-old property's casino and marked the end of the 5 1/2-year ownership of Becky Binion Behnen,  who had been operating the downtown property under a growing mountain of debt.  Binion's creditors included the Internal Revenue Service,  seven landlords that lease the land under the club to Behnen,  and the Fremont Street Experience.