It’s true that the number of entrants in the WPT have been down this year. Almost 25% fewer compared the previous year. However, the numbers don’t lie, poker is still an in demand commodity. Let’s just look at the WSOP events. Three events are already sold out from the first 9 events that passed. And it only signifies one thing; lots of poker players really want to join the events but the slots are only limited.
Look at how the competitors in the WSOP Main Event unfolds: 2003 started out with only 830 entries, this is also the time that Moneymaker made run to the finals and won. In 2004, the number of entries had gone on the roof with more than 3 times than the previous year with 2,576 entrants. In 2005, players that enter in the event was 5,619. And the highest would be in 2006 with 8,773 entries. While in 2007 and 2008 have gone low with 6, 358 and 6, 844 entrants.
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 had made issues concerning online gambling and doubled their efforts in order to smashed this recreation, the numbers of entries following the UIGEA passage can’t lie. It means that a lot of people are really drawn to poker online that they can’t be stopped.
The huge success of the $1,000 NLHE tournament shows how much people wanted to play poker. This Stimulus Specials as called by the WSOP brass attracted more than 6,000 players during its course. Professional poker player Steve Sung grabbed the bracelet despite of the astonishing number of players involve.
There will be no question that this years Main Event will reach the 6,000 mark even though lots of difficulties are present at the moment like the recession, flu scare and the UIGEA law. This is because of the number of entrants that joined the preliminaries that predicts a great outcome for the Main Event.
When the numbers on the WSOP will increase, it only means one thing. And that would be for the government to consider legalizing and legislating online poker. Hope the UIGEA will be repelled and let’s play!