On May 30th, 2009, just as tournament organizers had hoped, the World Series of Poker surpassed all previous records for participants outside of a WSOP Main Event on Saturday. Early on, it was announced that the World Series of Poker's $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em economic stimulus event was a huge-sellout and around 6,000 participants to play.
The exact number of participants would not be known until tomorrow, but the event, made as a response to the financial crisis, will easily surpass the previous record of 3,929 players in a $1,500 event last year. World Series of Poker Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack said that they could not have wished for a better turnout. He added that the demand for the Stimulus Special was felt the moment that they have announced it.
But this is not the only record that has been surpassed over the first few days of the World Series of Poker. The one-time $40,000 buy-in cost commemorative tournament attracted 201 poker players creating a record cash pool for tournament outside of a Main Event of $8 million on Thursday. Aside from that, the player record for an Omaha Eight event fell when around 918 participants registered for the $1,500 Omaha Hi-Lo event. Commissioner Pollack said that this tournament is good evidence that the game of poker is doing well. Well-known online MTT pro and World Series of Poker bracelet holder James "mig.com" Mackey is fan of the event.
But the tournament has an even substantial effect on poker players like Drew Becker from Charlotte, North Carolina, who decided to participate in his first event World Series of Poker because of the buy-in cost. The total cash pool for the event is expected to be at least $5 million and the champion will take home at least 750 times of their original investment.
06/28/2009 21:31 PM