E-WSOP

WSOP: Prize Money & Stats

It’s a game where money just rolls and luck favors the one who is able to withstand the challenges. More and more players are entering into the playing arena which mean the money is on a steady rise. The excitement has increased over the years and it is not closely watched game.

The World Series of Poker has had a impressive growth from 2003 to till date. Some of the interesting and must know statistics have been mentioned below which will help you in understanding the growth of the game better.

WSOP Main Event Prizepools, 2003-2007

2003 WSOP Main Event

Number of Players: 839
Prize Pool: $7 802 700
Number of Players Paid: 63 (7.5% )
Minimum Prize Money: $15,000
Millionaires Created By The Event: 2
Title: Chris Moneymaker
Winners Take: $2.5 million

2004 WSOP Main Event

Number of Players: 2 576
Prize Pool: $24 224 400
Number of Players Paid: 226 (8.77% )
Minimum Prize Money: $10,000
Millionaires Created By The Event: 5
Title: Greg Raymer
Winners Take: $5 million

2005 WSOP Main Event

Number of Players: 5 619
Prize Pool: $52 818 610
Number of Players Paid: 560 (9.97% )
Minimum Prize Money: $12,500
Millionaires Created By The Event: 9
Title: Joe Hachem
Winners Take: $7.5 million

2006 WSOP Main Event

Number of Players: 8 773
Prize Pool: $82,512,162
Number of Players Paid: 876 (9.99% )
Minimum Prize Money: $10, 616
Millionaires Created By The Event: 12
Title: Jamie Gold
Winners Take: $12 million

2007 WSOP Main Event

Number of Players: 6 358
Prize Pool: $59,784 954
Number of Players Paid: 621 (9.77% )
Minimum Prize Money: $20,320
Millionaires Created By The Event: 5
Winners Take: $8.25 million

This year saw a rise in number of players with the number of players averaging close to 1000 entrants per tournament. With the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act coming into force, WSOP organisers Harrah’s decided to exclude winners of the sponsored Internet poker seats from registration.

However, this did not see a dip in online poker rooms. If not for the enforcement act, poker experts speculate that there could have been at least 4k players added to the main event. The competition would have be tougher and the prize money could have been even more. New records could have been set. This is true as over 55% of last year’s field was due to Internet qualifiers.

Internet registration of WSOP seat were previously organized in a smooth and professional manner by the online poker rooms. This cannot be the case anymore. The newspapers have been featuring articles like “Consider what that means to the guy in Dubuque, Iowa, who won a World Series main event satellite online.

He had to inform his wife that he was going to take $12 000 in cash, leave her with the kids in the middle of the summer and disappear to Las Vegas for a couple of weeks. Tough sell, huh?” This is definitely not good for the game however, it is yet to be seen if there would be any changes in the future.