The World Series of Blackjack is a series of televised blackjack tournaments hosted by GSN, the Game Show Network. In the 2006 season, players are competing for a prize pool of $1 million, and the casino sponsoring the event is the Las Vegas Hilton. (The tournament has been hosted by a different casino every season to date.)
The series of tournaments consists of 8 one-hour preliminary events, 2 semi-final events, 2 wild card events, and a final match. Between 25 and 40 players compete each season, and some of them are the most famouse and best blackjack players in the world. (People like Ken Smith, Ken Einiger and Hollywood Dave Stann.)
The WSOB is also sponsored in part by AOL, but we'll try not to hold that against them.
World Series of Blackjack Episode Recaps, by Season |
WSOB Season 1 Recaps |
WSOB Season 2 Recaps |
WSOB Season 3 Recaps |
WSOB Season 3 Recaps Part 2 |
WSOB Season 4 Recaps |
WSOB Season 4 Recaps Part 2 and 3 |
The winner of the first season event was MIT Mike, who was a member of the infamous MIT Blackjack Team. That year the top prize was $100,000, and the event was held at the Mohegan Sun Casino and Resort. The first season only consisted of 5 games, instead of the 8 games in the next two seasons.
The second tournament was held at The Golden Nugget in Las Vegas. Ken Einiger won the top prize of $250,000 in the 2nd annual event.
The third season of the World Series of Blackjack again saw a change in venue, this time being held in the Las Vegas Hilton, and the top prize was also raised again, this time to $500,000.
This section of the site includes recaps of all three seasons of the World Series of Blackjack, and each of those recaps includes the action and players from each episode. During the first two seasons, the World Series of Blackjack was co-hosted by Max Rubin and Matt Vasgersian. During Season 3, new hosts Ben Mezrich and John Fugelsang joined the show. (Ben Mezrich is probably best known for his book about the MIT Blackjack Team, Bringing Down the House.)
If you're interested in the World Series of Blackjack, you'll probably also be interested in these other televised blackjack tournaments:
You'll probably also be interested in our episode recaps from the Ultimate Blackjack Tour too: