WSOP Statistics, Key Events, and Trends

The World Series of Poker (WSOP) has been a cornerstone in poker history. The series started in 1970 and has been held annually for over 50 years, including during the global lockdown in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Over the years, the series has evolved to meet the modern needs of players, the popularity of poker, and the capabilities for organizing poker tournaments. We have compiled statistics for each WSOP event where a championship bracelet was awarded, and in this article, you will see the conclusions we have drawn from the comprehensive WSOP statistics throughout its history.

Prize Amounts

Since 1972, the buy-in for the main event of the series has been $10,000. From 1971 to 1977, the winner took the entire prize pool, and the distribution of prizes among several players began in 1978. If the “Winner-Take-All” rule had been in place until 2023, the 2023 WSOP champion Daniel Weinman would have received $100,430,000 in prize money.

Let’s see how the WSOP champion’s prize has changed over the years:

If we base our calculations on the statistics from the past 10 years, the next linear value would be $8,777,561. Even if we exclude the unusual 2020 due to COVID-19, our calculations show a prize range between $9,051,947 and $11,113,262. Our expected prize is: $10,082,604.

Number of Players

The graph of WSOP Main Event participants shows several interesting facts:

First, we see a sharp increase that occurred in 2004. This moment is known as the “Moneymaker Effect.” It happened after Chris Moneymaker won the 2003 tournament, demonstrating to everyone how to achieve the “American Dream.”

Chris earned $2,500,000 in a tournament with 839 participants, while in the following year, 2004, Greg Raymer played in a tournament with 2,576 players and received $5,000,000. The growth from 2003 to 2004 was 207%.

This trend did not stop there. In 2005, Joe Hachem won the tournament with 5,619 players and received $7,500,000. This was a 118% increase in one year.

In 2006, Jamie Gold won the tournament with 8,773 participants and received a record $12,000,000 in prize money. This record stood until 2023! The player count increase of 56% indicates a gradual slowdown of the upward trend.

Since 2007, we see a decline in the number of players, which may be related to the adoption of the “Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006” in the US. The increase in players was linked to the popularity of online poker and the hosting of numerous satellites through which amateurs could enter the WSOP Main Event without paying the $10,000 buy-in. With the restriction of online poker, advertising budgets and the number of players in satellites decreased.

Another important moment was the WSOP 2020, which was held online with players separated by country, followed by two finals on different continents and a decisive heads-up. The number of players formally decreased, although more people wanted to participate in the online tournament. After the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions, the situation began to improve. Since 2020, the series has added tournaments held online, so the total number of events continues to grow.

Number of Events

As you might guess, the number of tournaments in the WSOP series is growing, and future growth may be related to the addition of online events. Organizers are unlikely to extend the main series duration beyond 2 months, and the number of players who can physically be present in the casino at the same time is limited.

Another solution for the future of poker could be replacing the early stages of tournaments (which attract the most players and therefore require more tables and series personnel) with online play while maintaining offline play from the second or third day onward.

Offline or Online?

As we mentioned in the article about the organization of the 1970 WSOP, the series was created by Benny Binion to popularize poker and attract players to Binion’s Horseshoe casino. The idea of holding the WSOP offline dominated even during the online poker boom, but COVID-19 changed the world. We see a steady trend towards increasing the number of online tournaments and believe it will continue.

Note

We used official information about the results of the WSOP series from 1970 to 2024, excluding WSOP Europe, WSOP Asia Pacific, and tournaments held as part of the main series without awarding a bracelet. If you notice an error in the data, please let us know.