Poker is Recession Proof - The Number Counts In The WSOP

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.

You can see the statistics in the Main Event throughout the years. In 2003, there were more than 800 players, and then at 2004 we saw 3 times the number of entrants in 2003. The field increase in 2005 with a number of 5,619 entries and at 2006 the field jumps to its highest at 8.773. While the number of players decrease at the following years; only 6,358 and 6,844 entrants in 207 and 2008.

The decrease of numbers since 2006 can be charged into the passage of the UIGEA bill in Congress in which a number of poker sites withdraw from the US market. Due to their departure, a lot people withdraw from playing online and also there is a decrease of online satellite opportunities for poker players who wanted to join the major tournaments.

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.

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.