Why paying 1,000 places is better than a $10m first prize
Barry Carter praises the WSOP's decision to pay more players in the Main Event this year, and suggests it could improve the number of runners.
I'm just getting my head around the new WSOP schedule announced this week, which looks amazing. I'll save that for another day, as today I wanted to discuss last week's news that that the WSOP was reversing its decision to guarantee $10 million to the Main Event winner, and instead guaranteed that 1,000 places would get paid instead.
If the Main Event had the same entrants as last year, this would see an $8 million first prize and more than 300 extra players making the money (An almost 50% increase). This 1,000 payout guarantee is based on a minimum of 5,000 entrants.
Last year I was very critical of the move to guarantee $10 million to the winner. I was actually much more in favour of what the WSOP are now going to do this year, so I am delighted to see that they have changed their stance.
A poker badge of honour
It does have to be said, the $10 million Main Event was one of the better ones, from a poker growth perspective. There was indeed more players last year and we got perhaps the best player to win the World Championship in Martin Jacobson, so I don’t think we can call the first prize guarantee a failure, even if I did disagree with it.
The reason I like the change is because only one player benefited from the $10 million first prize, but now at least 300 more are likely to reap the rewards of this new structure.
The fact of the matter is, most recreational players play the Main Event so that they can say they played the Main Event. It is a bucket list item for most, rather than a +EV value proposition. As such, cashing in the Main Event is the end goal, rather than winning it, for most players.
It is a badge of honour to cash in the Main Event. If you disagree with me, just get down to the Rio this year and watch the atmosphere on the bubble of the Main Event. The tension before the money, and the elation when you make it, is like nothing else in poker. So it is wonderful now that nearly 50% more people will experience that elation.
A once-in-a-lifetime experience
More importantly, I believe this will convince so many more people who were on the fence about playing to pony up $10k for this once-in-a-lifetime experience. Even more will want to play satellites, because a $15,000 min-cash is very enticing, especially now it is more likely.
Yes that does mean that some payouts in the middle will be less, but in general I believe that almost all poker players want flatter payout structures, so this will be welcome news.
When you combine this with what looks like a truly amazing 2015 schedule announced this week, I think you will see one of the most player-friendly WSOPs of all time.
Do you like this new payout structure or do you want bigger final table prizes? Let us know in the comments.
