Just six or seven years ago, when I was living in Las Vegas, the World Series of Poker was a very different animal. It was held downtown in Binion’s Horsehose casino, which gets away with being dark, reasonably dirty and cramped, by being ‘full of poker history’.

It was crowded, frantic, unpleasant, and, well, everything I’d dreamed it would be. Back then poker was still a little raw – it still felt slightly dangerous and underground.

A large percentage of players in the room were professionals and several of them were instantly recognisable. There was a lot less money in the poker economy back then. I think the Big Game was somewhere around $200/$400; now it’s 10 times that. This meant if you played a one-table satellite for an event there was every chance that one of the best in the world would be one of the players trying to win their way in. Now if you see a top poker pro it’s a rarity, and they’re more likely to be doing a photo shoot for an energy drink.

When I first went I was like a kid in a candy store. I railed top players just feet away from them and I would regularly wander up to several pros – some now household names – to ask them questions about my game. This year it was a struggle to book a 20- minute slot to interview one of them.

Changes afoot

The last time I was at the WSOP before this year was in 2002. It was one year before the internet explosion and Chris Moneymaker’s landmark win. It was, perhaps, the last year the World Series was recognisable as the elite competition it used to be. But in a sign of things to come the pros were bested that year by enthusiastic amateur Robert Varkonyi.

In the five years since, poker has changed beyond recognition. It may be hard to believe if you’ve got into the game in the last few years, but back then poker outside the Main Event was struggling. Casinos were closing poker rooms as they didn’t pay for themselves, there was little or no TV coverage, and perhaps only Amarillo Slim was known in mainstream America.

Mainstream sport?

Now it seems like everyone plays – and everyone’s an instant expert. Poker and its subsequent promotions are everywhere, and if it’s ever regulated in the US it will be a mainstream sport.

The World Series of Poker and the game itself have changed forever – and it’s all happened incredibly quickly. Of course, the growth of poker – its increased popularity – has been great for the game and all of us involved, but part of me misses the scummy, shambolic mess it used to be.

To help you grasp the scale of the changes in the last five years I’ve provided a quick and easy cut-out- and-keep comparison chart...