Poker Is Getting Bigger Despite The Odds
July 22, 2009 – 4:50 amby Anselmo Theunis
The entrants in the World Poker Tournament have decreased this year, around 25% smaller than last year. But the WSOP tournaments says a bit different with 3 out 9 events sold out at present. It only means that people are interested to enter but oddly no more rooms to crammed them in.
Looking for evidence? Let’s check the WSOP statistics from 2003 till the previous year. Year 2003 mark the win of Moneymaker and the WSOP only had 839 players. In 2004, the number of players have gone to 2,576, about three times more than the previous year. And then the jump to 5,619 in 2005 and 8,773 in 2006. WSOP series in 2007 and 2008 got 6,358 and 6,844 players respectively.
The sudden decrease in number from 2006 can be simply blamed into the passage of the UIGEA which eventually earmark the withdrawal of vital poker sites from the US market. And this event causes the decrease of people who are enthusiastically playing online and also a decrease in satellite chances in order to get an opportunity to play in major competitions.
Though the government really tried to pursue closing down all poker sites online, just check out the statistics. More than 6000 players since the year after the UIGEA was passed signifies that a lot of people wanted to play online poker!
One testament would be the huge success of the $1,000 NLHE tournament, also called the “Stimulus Special” by the WSOP brass. This poker comp holds the largest stat in a non-Main Event history of WSOP with more than 6,000 entrants. But the large number of players did not stop poker pro Steve sung to bag the title and win his first ever WSOP bracelet.
There will be no question that the number of players in the Main Event this year will reach at 6,000. Even though there is an influx of bad events recently such as the swine flu scare, the economic recession and the UIGEA bill there is a clear prediction that the Main Event this year will garner a lot of entrants.
Since there is a surge of population despite the UIGEA maybe it will be time for the government to legalize and legislate poker in the internet. Poker is a fun and entertaining game and I’m certain that there would be more happy faces when the UIGEA will be repelled.
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