We have one week of the 2008 World Series of Poker behind us and some of the early questions have revolved around how 2008 would stack up against 2007. Has the economy, the gas prices and the fading poker boom taken its toll on the WSOP?
Well as far as the first week numbers go, the answer has to be a solid, definite 'wait and see'. Bolstered by nearly 4,000 players in the first $1,500 NLHE event, the first week has been close to or above the comparable event in 2007.
Here is how the first ten tournaments compared:
2008 Event #1
$10,000 Pot Limit Hold'em
Number of Entrants: 352
Number of 2007 entries: 398
(down but the 2007 event was a $5,000 buy-in)
2008 Event #2
$1,500 No Limit Hold'em
Number of Entrants: 3,929
2007 Entries 2,998
(previous record for non-main event registrations was 3,151)
2008 Event #3
$1,500 Pot Limit Hold'em
Number of Entrants: 713
2007 Entries: 781
(registrations off by about 10%)
2008 Event #4
$5,000 Mixed Hold'em
Number of Entrants: 332
2007 Entries: 451
(25% drop in entrants)
2008 Event #5
$1,000 No Limit Hold'em w/rebuys
Number of Entrants: 776 + 2,358 rebuys
2007 Entries: 814 + 1814 rebuys
(notice the huge increase in rebuys in a smaller field)
2008 Event #6
$1,500 Omaha Hi/Lo 8 or better
Number of Entrants: 833
2007 Entries: 690
(a big increase for the first Omaha event)
2008 Event #7
$2,000 No Limit Hold'em
Number of Entrants: 1,593
2007 Entries: 1,531
(up 60+ players)
2008 Event #8
$10,00 Mixed Event
Number of Entrants:
2007 Entries: this is a new event
(Eight different games in a $10,000 buy-in)
2008 Event #9
$1,500 No Limit Hold'em 6-handed
Number of Entrants: 1,236
2007 Entries: 1,427
(no late registrations were allowed for this event, which held down the numbers)
2008 Event #10
$2,500 Omaha 8/Stud 8
Number of Entrants: 388
2007 Entries: 327
(an increase of over 20%)
To be fair:
4 events had increases
2 events were decreases
1 event was a new tournament
1 event ($1,000 rebuy) had mixed results
1 event was increased from $5k to $10K
1 event had limited registration time
