Home / Poker News May 2013 / 2013 WSOP Kicks Off
2013 WSOP Kicks Off
Posted by: James Carter. - Thu, 2013-05-30 05:46
The 2013 WSOP is officially on its way: the $500 Casino Employees event, the tournament which has kicked off the WSOP for quite a few years now, got underway on Thursday. The first open event will be the $5k
NL Holdem event this year, kicking off later in the day.
The Rio has been the home of the
WSOP for no fewer than seven years now, and although some players – like Steve O’Dwyer – positively loathe the location, it has this far been the host of mostly successful events and series.
Over the last 10 years, the World Series of Poker has gone through a dramatic transformation, as starting fields and thus prize-pools sky rocketed. In 2003, the year which is considered the turning point towards this major uptrend, a total of 7,572 players bellied up to the tables to see an online qualifier walk away with the Main Event top prize. 2003 was doubtlessly the year when the online poker industry (more precisely
PokerStars) finally managed to put its support behind the WSOP in a clearly palpable manner. In 2004, 14,054 players registered in one or more WSOP events, almost doubling the previous year’s attendance numbers.
In 2005, 32,341 players bought into the various WSOP events and for the first time, the total prize-pool shot past the $100 million mark.
The growth continued in 2006, when more than 48,000 players thought it worthwhile to buy in. Despite the drop in Main Event participants after 2006, 2011 was the year which actually marked the highest number of participants thus far. 75,672 players took part in the WSOP that year, creating a total prize-pool of more than $192 million. Although player numbers dropped in 2012, the total prize-pool shot to $222 million+ setting the still standing record in this respect.
Play at PokerStars to secure your 2013 WSOP seat.
