126 Players Show Up For First Day of WPT Championship

Published on 2009-04-19 08:40:23

Horrible economy? Conflicting EPT San Remo event?

Whatever the reason (or reasons) may be, there is no denying that the turnout for this year's WPT championship is shaping up to be pretty horrible compared to previous years.

Sure, there is always a bigger turnout for Day 1B than there is for Day 1A.

However, 126 entrants for the first day of the WPT Championship is pretty weak.

Last year, there were a total of 210 players for Day 1A of the tournament, and an additional 335 players on Day 1B.

This meant that a total of 545 people took part last year, which created a total prize pool of over $13 million dollars.

There will undoubtedly be a bigger turnout for Day 1B this year as well, however I would be surprised if the total field size ended up topping the 400 player mark.

This would be a dramatic drop from the 2008 tournament, which saw a total of 545 entrants.

The 2007 tournament had a total of 639 entrants, while the 2006 edition had 605.

Assuming that the 2009 edition of the WPT Championship ends up with around 400 entrants (which is pretty generous I think), then this would be the worst turnout for the event since 2004.

So what gives? Why the shrinking field sizes?

Is the economy taking a toll?

This is probably a small factor, however many tournaments are still doing very well.

The EPT San Remo event, which is running right now as well, is expected to have a total of 1,200 entrants (up from 701 last year).

This debunks the argument that "poker is dying".

To those who are worried about the turnout for the 2009 World Series of Poker - don't be. Poker is still booming in many parts of the world, and there will continue to be a tremendous international presence at this year's event.

The WPT has to be more than a bit concerned that their biggest event has suffered this much of a drop-off over the past few years, whatever the reasons are.

It should be interesting to see what kind of a turnout there is on Sunday.

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Filed Under: Live Tournament Results