The 2013 World Series of Poker started off with a huge turnout of more than 6,300 for the inaugural Millionaire Maker $1,500 buy-in. Since that tournament, however, the number of players for the weekend $1,500 and $1,000 buy-in events has been in steady decline compared to the previous year.
Through the four weekends since the Millionaire Maker, there have been 4,116 fewer entrants in the $1500s and $1000s on the same WSOP weekends compared to the 2012 events, and we still have Sunday’s $1,000 to add to the list.
We have watched this downward trend each week, talked about it on air at HoldemRadio.com and talked with WSOP staff about it. The overall number of players is up due to the wildly-successful Millionaire Maker and the prize pools were up largely due to that as well.
How to balance that success with the clear downturn in other $1500s and $1000s is something that surely will be addressed when the 2014 schedule is debated and built out.
Seth Palansky, communications director for Ceasars and the WSOP, replied via Twitter, “More events, less needs to play a specific one, EDC. Still feeling good and on record-setting pace.,” when asked about the slippage in weekend numbers.
The downturn is not a surprise to us … just think about it. Many weekend WSOP players are coming to check off a Bucket-List item of playing in the WSOP for their first/only time. They come and can tell the buddies at their home game or $75 buy-in at the local casino they had a chance to play against the pro’s and play for a big top prize.
Now, with the Millionaire Maker, those same players can say they came to Las Vegas and PLAYED FOR A MILLION DOLLARS! Makes sense to see the bucket-list players come for that bigger prize, but it skewed the overall turnout numbers early on to look as though the WSOP was on-pace for a massive increase.
The numbers are up, a big plus for the WSOP, but the overall turnout will not be nearly as high as early esitmates, and tweaks are surely coming to keep the number of bucket-list players steady throught the entire series.
Dan is the founder of PokerLiveUpdates, a veteran poker tournament reporter who can be found wandering somewhat aimlessly through tournament arenas worldwide. As a founding member of FunTour2.0, he searches for the best in craft beer at all locations in the poker world.
