The World Series of Poker (WSOP) series is organized by year, reflecting the chronological progress of the tournament over the years. Documents in this series include press releases and press kits, which announce the tournament and key players; proceedings, including buy-in rosters, event schedules, participation lists, and handwritten notes that document the day-by-day results of play; player’s brochures, with finished designs as well as raw materials for these brochures; newspaper and magazine clippings; and display ads in both draft and finished form. It should be noted that most years do not contain all possible different types of materials, while some years document specialty events such as the women’s tournament, live telecast, or sports charity events, for which corresponding folders have been named.

The Poker Hall of Fame was established in 1979 by the Binions to honor great poker players past and present. The first Hall of Fame inductees included five famous players and two contributors; every year thereafter one player was chosen for induction, many of them World Series regulars. Around 1986, Binion began hosting a championship game called the Poker Hall of Fame Classic in which the best players from diverse categories came together to play in celebration of the game.

The materials in this series consist of press releases on the honorees, news clippings and proceedings of the tournament, a few Hall of Fame certificates, and miscellaneous writings. Series VI also contains a small number of photographs of the Hall of Fame Classic.

This series comprises material documenting various advertising efforts and promotional schemes undertaken by Binion’s Horseshoe in the late 1970s and early 1980s. One such promotional event is the famous Las Vegas Mint 400 Race, an off-road race held annually in the Mojave Desert several miles outside of Las Vegas. The race was instituted in 1967 by Mint owner Del Webb and the Binions took it over after they purchased the Mint in 1988. Other events documented in this series include a daredevil motorcycle event called Super Jump II, and a 1984 poker challenge gimmick against a computer designed by an early programmer named Mike Caro. Finally, general casino advertising materials and budgets, as well as published writings on poker and press releases on poker activities and personalities can be found in this series.

These files focus on Benny Binion and family, primarily Ted and Jack. Other clippings deal with general operations of the Horseshoe Casino, including news items on new promotions introduced at the Horseshoe such as the stagecoach, bingo room and slot tournaments. In addition there is a significant file on Eric and Jane Drache, primarily the former as he was former director of the WSOP and co-managed the Ten Deuce Poker Room at the Silverbird Casino with Doyle Brunson. There are also three clippings albums from 1986 and 1987 which chronicle the newspaper coverage of WSOP events and personalities.

The items placed in series five reflect some of the outside activities of the Binions in the Las Vegas community as well as lesser business activities inside the Horseshoe.

Loose photographs are divided broadly into subseries based on subject and then organized into folders and named accordingly, and usually represent a specific person, event or activity. Examples of photographic subjects in this series include scenes and closeups of some years of the World Series of Poker tournaments; Horseshoe Casino interiors, exteriors, roadside billboards and renovations; Binion’s Montana ranch; and Jack Binion doing promotional giveaways for the Horseshoe.

Formats run the gamut from professional black and white 8 x 10 prints to color snapshots and amateur polaroids. The majority of photographic items are prints which can be found in black and white as well as color, but there are also negatives and contact sheets, almost all of which back up prints already existing in the collection.

The artwork included in this series is mostly related to World Series of Poker events and personalities and the Binion family. Drawings, lithographs, and oversized photographs have been put into folders as described below. Also included in this series are photograph albums from World Series of Poker tournaments in 1974 and 1979, an album recording a 1970s-era golfing trip among players, plaques and certificates of appreciation for the Binions’ donations to philanthropic causes, and part of the proceedings of the 1981 WSOP.

The audiovisual materials series consists of twenty-two videotape cassettes and eighteen audiotape cassettes. The latter primarily document the World Series of Poker in the early 1980s, while the former are mostly brief news releases with topics that range somewhat more broadly across the whole collection.

This series was donated in 2004 in addition to the previous materials. It contains unopened commercially-produced VHS tapes documenting the WSOP from 1997 to 2001, as well as collectible programs from previous years and a 2002 press kit.