Is this year stacking up to last year’s numbers?

With all the fuss about America trying to criminalize internet poker, a lot of people are interested to see how this year’s WSOP is lining up against previous years. The biggest tournament on the planet will certainly be the place where we will learn if the game has begun to either decline, levelled off, or continued to grow.

Well, so far there hasn’t been any dramatic result to report. Some numbers are up, and some are down. It’s a bit tough to compare because the structure of the tournament changed so much this year, with the addition of so many new events.

Nonetheless, here’s a list of events that have been played in previous years, as well as this year, with the entry numbers:
Game                            2003     2004     2005     2006     2007

$1,500 NL Hold’em - 531         831         2,305      2,776      2,998
$1,500 PL Hold’em - 212          363         1,071      1,102         781
$1,500 Limit Hold’em - 346     608           699       1,068        910
$1,000+Rebuys Hold’em- n/a 538           826           752        844
$2,000 NL Hold’em -     407     834     1  ,403        1,919      1,531
$5,000 7-Card Stud -     96      144            192           183        180

Totals                                        3,318      6,496        7,800     7,244

So looking at those numbers, one could say that the tournament has started a decline, or at least has levelled off this year.  But those stats are a bit debatable because they don’t give the entire picture of this year’s tournament because there are more events being played now, with some of them overlapping.  The first event this year was the biggest tournament ever played (except the last two WSOP main events).  So to this point the numbers are good and are not showing a dramatic decline that many predicted.  If this continues, overall entries for the tournament will grow because of the extra events, which shows an increase in overall attraction for the WSOP.

But even this good news doesn’t change my opinion that the Main Event numbers will be down from last year.  The WSOP is not taking any third party entries from online sites that provide American action.  These sites have driven the numbers up in previous years through satellite entries.  Therefore, these sites are forced to reward their players with the cash for the trip, giving the player the option to keep it instead of letting it ride in the Main Event.  And many will do just that.  I expect a total number of somewhere between 5600 and 6000 – but who knows? Last year’s record could yet be broken.

Hey… you can bet on who you think has what it takes to win the 2007 WSOP Main Event. Get your 2007 WSOP odds!