History of the “World Series of Poker” Bracelets

It’s that time of the year again, where poker players compete for cash and glory in the World Series of Poker. The final table plays down to one man standing November 7-9 in Las Vegas. The ESPN broadcast will air on November 10.

Chip leader Darvin Moon and pro Phil Ivey shake hands at the 2009 WSOP

The “November 9″, as the WSOP finalists are being called, is an interesting mix of newbies, pros, blue collars vs bankers. But there’s one thing that they all have in common: they want to walk out with the famous WSOP trophy bracelet. But did you know that some of the biggest poker players claim they don’t even want it?

Poker legend Doyle Brunson, who has won several WSOP bracelets since 1976,  once said “(the bracelets) didn’t mean anything to me.” As he won more of them, he even claimed to have given them away to family members.

Phil Hellmuth Jr. also kept only one bracelet from his 1989 win and gave away the rest of his 11 wins. 10-time winner Johnny Chan did quite the opposite as he kept his prized possessions inside a vault and claimed that they worth “millions”.

While the poker champs seem to play it cool when it comes to possessing the prize trinkets, thousands of other aspiring poker pros are still scrambling after their first bracelet. It’s the most prestigious and coveted non-monetary prize in the world of poker.

The tournament hosts started awarding one bracelet to the winner of every event at the annual WSOP, a tradition started by the founder, Benny Binion.

During the first years, only a very few could get their hands on the bracelets. And these were not the bracelets you know now. The earlier WSOP bracelets were simpler, in fact, the first bracelet (1976) looked like “gold nuggets kind of hammered flat.” These bracelets cost around $500 each.

In the 80’s, the bracelets were exclusively manufactured by Las Vegas Jeweler, Mordechai Yerushalmi, until Harrah’s Entertainment bought the rights to the WSOP in 2004. In 2005, the bracelets were manufactured by Memphis-based Gold and Diamond International.

The license was passed again in 2006 to Frederick Goldman, Inc. where it introduced the Champion’s bracelet diamond-clad bracelet. The Champion’s bracelet had 259 stones including 7.2 carats of diamonds, rubiesto represent the heart and diamond suits, a sapphire to represent the spade and three black diamonds to represent the clubs.

But a year later, luxury watch maker, Corum, which had created additional signature watch prize the year before, became the official bracelet manufacturer for the WSOP. At this point, things were way different than they were in the 1970s. Corum designed not one but four variations for the 2007 WSOP bracelets:

1. The Standard Version
Awarded to 53 winners, featured 53 diamonds.

2. The Ladies World Champion
Featured 4 black diamonds, 2 rubies and 87 blue sapphires. Won by Sally Anne Boyer on the World Championship Ladies No-Limit Hold’em Event.

3. The $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. Champion
Featured 91 black diamonds on 136 grams of 18 carat white gold, won by Steve Billrakis on the World Championship Mixed Hold’em (Limit/No-Limit).

For the last tournament in 2008, Corum stepped up its game by icing up the WSOP bracelets with more diamonds. The Main Event bracelet had 291 diamonds, on 168 grams of 18kt white gold. As for the rest 54 event bracelets, they consisted of 55 diamonds, or total weight 0.25 carats on 80 grams of 14kt yellow gold. That’s a long way from the $500 pressed nugget-like bracelets from the 70s.

This year, there will be 57 bracelets awarded in Las Vegas and 4 more at the World Series of Poker Europe. There’s not much details on how many diamonds are used, but we did get a sneak peek. We think Doyle Brunson would’ve understood if some people think these bracelets actually mean something. Just look at all the diamonds.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 6th, 2009 at 8:53 am and is filed under Poker News, Tournament Updates. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.