īelow are the 30 largest poker tournaments with respect to the prize pool in United States dollars and not number of entrants. The largest non Hold'em Tournament has been the 2008 WSOP $50K HORSE with a prize pool of $7,104,000 and the first prize of $1,989,120 going to Scotty Nguyen.
The WSOP Main Event of 2004 had the first prize pool of above $10,000,000. The first tournament to reach a million dollar prize pool was the 1983 WSOP Main Event. With the exception of 1992, the US$10,000 buy-in tournament increased in prize pool year-over-year from its start in 1970 until 2007 (the latter a result of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006, which reduced the number of players winning their seats via online play).
For the last several years, the largest tournament in the world has been the World Series of Poker Main Event.
