What Is World Series of Blackjack (WSOB)?

World Series of Blackjack is a prestigious blackjack tournament which is popular since 2004 when it was created and produced by GSN (Game Show Network); the 4 seasons of this tournament exist today and every season brought a bigger winning to its winner. Only invited blackjack gamblers took part in the first 2 seasons but soon the creators had understood it was not very thrilling for the audience to observe the competition of real blackjack experts and gurus, so, the rules had been changed.

Max Rubin and Matt Vasgersian were the hosts of the first 2 seasons of WSOB; as for the third season, it was hosted by Ben Mezrich (the former member of MIT blackjack team and author of the bestselling book Bringing Down the House) and John Fugelsang.

WSOB became popular thanks to its big prizes for winners too: if the winner of the 1st season has got $100 000, the winner of the 4th season had $1 million already.

The winners of WSOB were the following gamblers:

  • The 1st season - Mike Aponte ($100 000 won)
  • The 2nd season - Ken Einiger ($250 000 won)
  • The 3rd season - Dr. Jeff Bernstein ($500 000 won)
  • The 4th season - Alice Walker ($1 000 000 won)

World Series of Blackjack Rules

As well as any other blackjack tournament, WSOB has its own specific tournaments rules:

  1. Participants gamble 6-deck blackjack.
  2. They are welcome to double whenever they want.
  3. Every player should have $100 000 in chips in order to start a tournament.
  4. A dealer should stand on Soft 17.
  5. 25 hands should be played before the winner is determined.
  6. All players who can not make a minimum bet ($1000) will be eliminated.
  7. The maximum bet here is $50 000.
  8. There are such-called knockout cards present at WSOB: every time this card is drawn (it happens twice during the tournament) a player with the lowest number of chips will be eliminated and a minimum bet is increased (it is $2500 after the first knockout card, and it is $5000 after the second knockout card).
  9. Burger King Power Chip: it is given for every player, and it gives him/her a right to switch a card one time during the tournament. A player replaces one card with the next one from a shoe.
  10. The rule of Second Chance: two players who were second in their games receive the chance to continue playing.

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