Tag Team Event: The History And Specifics of The Only Group Game in the WSOP

The Brief History of WSOP Tag Team Events

In 1983 WSOP for the first time held a tournament for pairs — $800 Mixed Doubles Limit Seven Card Stud.

This event attracted 50 entries and collected a $40,000 prize pool, half of which was paid to the pair of winners — Donna and Jim Doman — whose photos unfortunately weren’t preserved.

After that, the World Series of Poker took a huge break in team events, returning to them only in 2016 with their first ever $1,000 Tag Team Event No Limit Hold’em. Rules of the inaugural event were simple:

• Number of players — from 2 to 4 per team.
• Each teammate must check in at their table prior to the end of the registration period and play at least one round of blinds or the team will be disqualified. 
• Players may tag a teammate anytime he/she is not in an active hand.
• Payouts are calculated based on the number of teams and are distributed evenly amongst teammates.  

This event collected 863 entries and was won by a star pair of Upswing Poker coaches from the USA Doug Polk and Ryan Fee.

In 2017, the WSOP tried to implement the group event for high rollers with a new $10,000 Tag Team No Limit Hold’em Championship. It got 102 entries and was won by one of the most famous and loved poker couples — Igor Kurganov and Liv Boeree who were awarded a $273,964 prize.

However, the success wasn’t enough to keep high rollers’ version going, so $10,000 Tag Team became a one-time promotion that will never return to WSOP again.

2017 was a very interesting year for the Tag Team Events also because both of them were won by international pairs: after Kurganov and Boeree, two players from India became triumphant in the $1,000 Tag Team Event with 843 entries — Aditya Sushant and Nipun Java — and took home a $150,637 prize.

Photo Credit: Drew Amato

In all the years that came after, the WSOP held only one group event each year — the $1,000 Tag Team Event — that had a few memorable moments.

For example, in 2019 there was an Israeli-only team of winners of Ohad Geiger, Barak Wisbrod and Daniel Dayan, who overcame a field of 976 entries and together won a $168,395 prize.

Photo Credit: Melissa Haereiti

And in 2022, the $1,000 Tag Team Event with 913 entries was won by one of the most charming pairs of pros — UK-citizen Patrick Leonard and Norwegian Espen Jørstad, who together won a $148,067 prize.

Photo Credit: Danny Maxwell

Winners of the WSOP Tag Team Event

In this section you can see the table with all winners of WSOP Tag Team Events excluding the pair from 1983 because that was a singular and different tournament.