How can we break the WSOP Main Event attendance record?
Barry Carter offers a few suggestions on how to break the 2006 WSOP Main Event record next year (after we almost did this year).
This year's Main Event is the second biggest in history and was only 110 players shy of breaking the record. Nobody can complain about that, it is a sign that poker is on the up.
Many of us were surprised, however, because there was a feeling in the air that this might have been the biggest WSOP of all time. Ask anyone two weeks ago and the over/under discussion really was on 10,000 runners.
We live in tough times. Inflation, an energy crisis, war in Europe and COVID has not gone away. Take any of these four factors out of the equation and I think we would have got the extra 110 players needed to break the record. The WSOP has no control over that, so what can they do next time to get the biggest WSOP in history?
Avoid big clashes
There were a lot of complaints about the length of the lines to register this year for the WSOP. While I don't think this will have stopped many players from actually playing the Main Event, clearly something needs to happen that makes registering for the big one quicker and more user friendly. If you have $10k to play you can stand a bit of queuing, but it is still important to remove any potential logistical issues before they become a problem.
I have a suspicion that hosting the $1,000 Mystery Bounty event at the same time as the start of the Main Event may have led to a lower turnout in the Main. The Mystery was the big hit of the series and for many it was a mini Main Event in itself. It attracted over 14,000 entrants and Day 1s took place at the same time as Day 1s in the Main.
I can't help but think that a lot of casual players will have got their WSOP fix in this event and skipped the Main as a result. Perhaps more significantly, having this many lower stakes (relatively) players in that event rather than satellites for the Main must have played a part.
In 2018 PokerStars had a big overlay in their Sunday Million Anniversary event which they later put down to also having a $1 million guaranteed Sunday Storm event the same day. That lower buy-in event was a big enough value proposition to satiate low stakes players so they didn't play the Milly, or at least didn't try and satellite into it.
Boost the satellites
This leads me to my final suggestion which is to increase the presence of satellites into the Main Event, live and online. Having lots of mega satellites instead of the Mystery Bounty event would have got way more butts on seats. I'm not saying don't have the Mystery Bounty that close to the Main, literally just make it a couple of days earlier.
Having a lone online partner has really hurt satellite qualification over the last decade or so. It is good for everyone if the WSOP opened up a dialogue with the big operators to make it a viable option again for the likes of PokerStars, partypoker, Winamax etc. Don't forget also that the more satellite winners we have, the better chance of creating a 'Moneymaker' style winner again from the recreational player pool. That will always be the best marketing the game has.
It's also a small thing but it seems like they missed a trick not making some of the prizes in the Mystery Bounty Main Event seats. It would probably only cover a few players who might be playing the Main anyway but it is a nice easy marketing gimmick.
Do we need to break the record? No, of course not, In fact it might be better for the WSOP overall if they put more of their efforts into affordable events like the Mystery Bounty. But if it is going to happen we need to remove logistical barriers, similar events that clash and increase satellites at a bare minimum.
What does the WSOP need to do to break the record? Let us know in the comments:
