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.
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 decrease would be attributed to the passage of the UIGEA in which a number of poker sites have leave the US market. Since this event a lot of poker fans have given up in playing online and also it mark the decrease in online satellite opportunities that gives chance to players to play in big tournaments.
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 Specias 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.
It will be hard to say if the players this year can reach 6,000 because of all the hinders such as the recession, swine flu and more UIGEA forces. But as the number in the preliminaries are big, maybe the Main event this present year will turnout to be one of the largest so far.
If everything turn out right this year and there would be an influx of entrants then it will be another sign for the government to legislate and legalize poker in the Internet. Well, let’s just pray that the government will repel the UIGEA and then think of more creative ways to play poker online.