The size of the World Series of Poker has grown dramatically over the past decade. In 1999, the entire Series was 16 events. In 2002, for the first time, there were more than thirty separate tournaments. In both 2007 and 2008 the WSOP has offered 55 bracelet events. With the "poker boom" has come some conflicts between the desires of the professional players for a more diverse (non-Hold'em) schedule with higher buy-ins and the attempt to make the World Series truly open to all players. The focus of this "low end" diversity has become the $1500 No Limit Hold'em tournaments.
In 2007, there were six $1,500 No Limit Hold'em tournaments, which amounted to about one every Saturday. In 2008, there are seven of these events. But has the increase in "small buy-in" events worked for the WSOP. And, yes we notice, that $1,500 is not what most poker players on the planet consider "small", but that is fodder for another post.
Five of the seven $1,500 NLHE events have been played this year and to date the numbers compared to last year are up about 700 players in total. Perhaps more significantly, we are talking about events that have drawn in excess of 2300 players for each start. The only other WSOP events over 1,000 players this year have been the two $2,000 NLHE tournaments and the $1,000 Seniors event.
If we go back to 2006, we can find three such events, actually two with another at only a $1,000 buy-in. These events were the largest draws outside of the main event back in '06 with an average of over 2,500 entrants. In 2005, just one "low buy-in" NLHE event drew 2305 players. Two eight hundred players $1,500 No Limit tournaments were run in 2004 and 531 players played in the only event in 2003. The boom at the WSOP has at least partially been fueled by the $1,500 events.
It is clear that the WSOP scheduling is balancing the desires of the professionals with the populist demand for more low buy-in events. On the 2008 WSOP schedule a full 21 of the 55 events are $1,500 buy-ins across the full range of poker games and almost unanimously these events are matching or exceeding last summer's registration numbers.
So when the final numbers are in on the 2008 World Series of Poker, expect two themes to emerge:
-the professionals are winning a bunch of bracelets;
-lots and lots of the average poker players are still coming to Las Vegas to play the $1,500 events and the same shiny gold bracelets.
