Everyone but the champion suffers from the WSOP $10 million Main Event guarantee
Barry Carter is shocked that the WSOP $10 million first place prize is being guaranteed by the rest of the players and not the WSOP themselves.
It is not very often I disagree with the World Series of Poker. As an entity they have brought a tremendous amount of innovation to poker and they always experiment with ways to keep the game fresh.
This week they announced their 2014 schedule, which included the already rumoured guarantee of $10 million to the winner of the Main Event.
I have already argued that this wasn't necessary. I feel that anyone who was not motivated by $8 million would not be motivated by $10 million either.
However, I acknowledged that it is still obviously a huge gesture and will get some good mainstream exposure.
I was very disappointed when I discovered that the $10 million first prize, if there was a shortfall of players, would be made up by taking small increments from all the other payouts.
The WSOP released an example payout based on the same number of runners as last year's tournament. In fairness, when you look at the payouts, they do a good job of not taking any significant cash from any single payout.
I still think it is really unfair to do it this way. When someone makes a guarantee, it is usually implied that any shortfall will be made up from the person making the guarantee. This is what entices people to play in guaranteed events - the knowledge that if the numbers are low, there will be added value extra cash from the organiser. What the WSOP is doing here is not so much guaranteeing, simply redistributing.
Put your money where your mouth is
Last year Dusk Till Dawn guaranteed €1 million for first place in the ISPT, and when the event did not make the number of runners needed, Rob Yong dipped into his own pocket.
The rest of the payouts were made up of the normal prize pool as they would always have been, and the relative difference was paid out by the organisers. This is what made that guarantee mean something.
I reached out to Rob about this guarantee, and this is what he had to say:
"I am in favour if a $10 million guaranteed prize for the WSOP Main Event for two reasons: the Main Event has been overshadowed somewhat by the One Drop and larger buy-in events (although the One Drop was brilliant); also, a headline of $10 million is great for marketing - including all the sites and venues that qualify players to the Main Event."
"However, the payout needs to be unaffected for it to be a genuine guarantee and should the top prize fall short, the deficit should be added by the operators. I think for credibility purposes this would be a good decision all round."
Rob also pointed out that the Main Event would much more likely grow and hit their guarantee if the organisers put more effort into getting the restrictions for operators outside the US to offer qualifiers into the Main Event lifted.
Everyone claims they are playing for first place and most people will say they want the $10 million, but the reality is most poker players want flatter payout structures. The fact of the matter is, whether publicised or not, most tournaments end in a deal.
Assuming 6,352 players enter again, the $10 million prize benefits one person in the field, and the WSOP marketing department - 6,351 players will effectively be worse off. If there is a shortfall, hundreds of players will be disappointed when they are reminded that their cash could have been worth more, were it not for this guarantee.
The Main Event is about so much more than the champion
I understand that the Main Event is unique in the world of poker and it comes with a certain sense of prestige that a $10 million first prize would elevate. But the Main Event is also the largest tournament in the world and an event that recreational players love.
It is a badge of honour to make the money in the Main Event. I think that the WSOP would serve their audience much better if they guaranteed more for a min-cash, or guaranteed more players would get a six-figure payout, or maybe even guaranteed everyone in the November Nine would get seven-figures.
I have every confidence that the Main Event will see increased numbers this year, because there will now be online traffic and satellites in the US, not to mention an increased media attention on this event compared to the last few years.
I also acknowledge that the WSOP are well within their rights to change the prize pool allocation however they see fit - it was already flatter than most. I had it rightly pointed out to me in the example given above that the first prize was still flatter than events like the PCA and the Aussie Millions. But the flatness of the payouts is one of the things that makes the WSOP special, in part because the size of the field is that much greater than any other event.
Making a bold guarantee means nothing when somebody else suffers the consequences of failure. I think this is a rare misstep by the WSOP, who normally always have the poker community's best interests at heart. I hope they reconsider, especially as the rest of the schedule looks pretty awesome. The champion is important, but I feel the real spirit of the WSOP is in the many players it touches, rather than just the one who wins the gold.
Hopefully the Main Event will exceed all expectations and make this argument irrelevant.
Do you think it is fair that the $10 million first prize is guaranteed by taking money from the rest of the payouts? Let me know in the comments box.
by Barry Carter
