Has the WSOP Main Event now lost it's status and exclusivity ?

[boreemax]

Can't help but think that the "big one for one drop" has diminished the status and exclusivity of the WSOP Main Event for ever, after watching the live ESPN final table and more to the point the brief heads-up battle where the payouts were roughly $10mill for 2nd and $18mill for winner. The difference in prizemoney here is roughly equal to the prizemoney for winning a Main Event, so 30 mins of work here vs 2 weeks or so of surviving at a poker table doesn't seem fair to me, the winners payday just won't look that great anymore, and all the records will be skewed for ever. The hedge fund guy, Einhorn who came 3rd for 4.3mill and who was donating winnings to charity is now ranked ahead of Lisandro in all time poker earnings, not to mention the magician who now is 1st by a gap $7mill in earnings $23mill total 2nd Seidel $16mill.
Sometimes more isn't always better.

[C_Bomb]

Can't help but think that the "big one for one drop" has diminished the status and exclusivity of the WSOP Main Event for ever

WSOP ME was never exclusive. Anyone with $10k or who could parlay thier way through the sattys could enter. That is part of what makes it attractive, anybody can enter

,

after watching the live ESPN final table and more to the point the brief heads-up battle where the payouts were roughly $10mill for 2nd and $18mill for winner. The difference in prizemoney here is roughly equal to the prizemoney for winning a Main Event, so 30 mins of work here vs 2 weeks or so of surviving at a poker table doesn't seem fair to me,

Pretty sure heads up doesn't last 2 weeks in the Main Event. Even if it does last a whole lot longer its nothing different than both players getting it in first hand heads up. The hole cards, players styles, reads and the board will decide when the game ends.

The difference between first and second at WSOP ME in 2011 was 341.77 buy ins. One drop was 9.26 byu ins. It s the field size and the buy in that make the difference here.

the winners payday just won't look that great anymore,

You're right, I cbf playing poker for a total of 8-9 days to win $7M+, I'm just gonna play Diablo3 instead

and all the records will be skewed for ever. The hedge fund guy, Einhorn who came 3rd for 4.3mill and who was donating winnings to charity is now ranked ahead of Lisandro in all time poker earnings, not to mention the magician who now is 1st by a gap $7mill in earnings $23mill total 2nd Seidel $16mill.
Sometimes more isn't always better.

Jamie Gold went straight to the top and since the "Boom" there have been guys in the top 10 who got a massive chink of their earning in one hit. Again its part of the allure.

If I count right then 21 of the top 50 owe 60% of their totals to 1 ME FT appearance.


The records have been "skewed" by this factor for a while, but when it all boils down, no one cares who is at the top of the all time Money WSOP list. They care about how much they make themselves.

So has it lost its status? maybe a little

Has it lost its exclusivity? It never had any

Oh and they still only give out one ME winner bracelet per year. but they do give out lots of other bracelets every year. They should probably try to cut down the total number of bracelets awarded if theywant a bracelet to remain "exclusive"

[boreemax]

C-Bomb, you said

"Pretty sure heads up doesn't last 2 weeks in the Main Event. Even if it does last a whole lot longer its nothing different than both players getting it in first hand heads up. The hole cards, players styles, reads and the board will decide when the game ends."


The way I see it is,

WSOP ME = approx $8million, lasts about 2 weeks
Big one for one drop heads-up battle = approx $8 million, lasts about 30 mins.

Yes I understand it's all related to the buy-in and what's the difference if a tournament ends after 1 hand or 1 million hands as it's all a product of cards, reads, ability, luck, etc. The $8 million was the difference between 1st and 2nd yesterday and it is also the same as what you get for winning WSOP ME roughly, so we are equating 30 mins vs 2 weeks. But I just want to make the point that what was until now seen as a great feat in the poker world, (winning a WSOP ME involving an $8million purse and outlasting the poker world over a 2 week tournament), doesn't seem that great a feat anymore by virtue of someone winning more than double that for about 5% of the work, (my estimate). How can you limit the field to 48 and give the winner 1.5 times the previous record for prizemoney and not send all the recorded data out of alignment. If not many ppl care about records why do commentators spend 75% of their on-air time talking about records and why does the "Hendon Mob" database exist.

[Yorkshire Pudding]

The Main Event is still magical I think. Although $10k is out of my own personal reach at the minute it is not out of the realms of possibility for me to one day play in it and potentially win millions.

The One Drop tournament was a big gimmick but one that has given exposure to poker to the "normal" world and more importantly the Guy Laliberte's charity.

People use the records because it gives some sort of guide to a player's ability. Although Jamie Gold is in the top 10 earners (I think) there is no way on this Earth he is even in the top 100 or top 1000 players in the world.

[boreemax]

Yeah, there's a lot to be said for a list with true meaning, like maybe to qualify you need 5 or more cashes of $100k+, until then you don't exist in poker.

Just read about Trickett + girlfriend getting set upon by 6 thugs after a night of celebrations, a real shame and not too long ago same thing happened to Duhamel (I think his ex was implicated), and on a smaller scale couple years ago someone at Aussie Millions got rolled for their substantial pay-out after leaving Macca's on way to accommodation late one night.

[Yorkshire Pudding]

Yeah, there's a lot to be said for a list with true meaning, like maybe to qualify you need 5 or more cashes of $100k+, until then you don't exist in poker.

Just read about Trickett + girlfriend getting set upon by 6 thugs after a night of celebrations, a real shame and not too long ago same thing happened to Duhamel (I think his ex was implicated), and on a smaller scale couple years ago someone at Aussie Millions got rolled for their substantial pay-out after leaving Macca's on way to accommodation late one night.

The Global Poker Index is a good one but again it does not take into account the tournaments players buy into but do not cash in. Surely in this day and age that would be possible?

[Strong Play]

you should come up with something bro

[Yorkshire Pudding]

I'm sure most of the players would prefer not to have buy-ins included as it makes them look like they are bigger winners than they actually are!

[dgiharris]

...
Oh and they still only give out one ME winner bracelet per year. but they do give out lots of other bracelets every year. They should probably try to cut down the total number of bracelets awarded if theywant a bracelet to remain "exclusive"

Not really.

They may give out 60 bracelets per year, but these events easily average more than 1,000 players per event. So, you are talking about 1 bracelet per 1000 people per year. That's fairly exclusive. And given how hard these things are to win, its not like the market is flooding with WSOP bracelets.

[ben dee]

the WSOP was exclusive ?

WHEN?