With so much poker happening in Vegas this summer, the action provided a good barometer of what is happening in the industry. With three different tournament series to choose from and hundreds of events, here is how things shook out.
The 55 events that made up the 2007
World Series of Poker attracted 54,288 entrants, which generated a total prize pool of more than $160 million. This compares to 42,000 entrants and a $171 million prize pool for the 46 events that ran last year.
As we go to press, we're into the main event. This year, 6,358 players entered the big one, 2,415 fewer than last year, which is just over a 25 percent decline. I predicted there would be fewer than 6,000 players, but with a ton of international players making the journey to Vegas, the numbers came in higher than I expected.
The no-limit hold'em lovers'
Bellagio Cup III contained 28 events and drew almost 2,500 players for the preliminary events, which ranged from $1,500 to $5,000. While the overall numbers were a bit below expectations, the tournament offered a solid alternative for the big buy-in no-limit hold'em player. The $10,000 main event, which was transformed into a World Poker Tour televised event, brought more than 300 players through the door in its first two days.
Maybe the biggest surprise of the summer was how popular The Venetian's
Deep-Stack Extravaganza II (
DSE II) became. By spreading tournaments with buy-ins ranging from $330 to $1,060, The Venetian found a poker niche that proved to be lucrative for both the players who played and the casino.
The Venetian tournament attracted more than 14,750 entrants, which generated a total prize pool of more than $7 million. Each tournament drew upward of 500 people, and one $330 event had 600 entrants. The winner of it received $56,455. This tournament series proved to be so popular that another week of $1,060 events was added.
Many successful poker pros made their way across town to play the tourneys, since the prize money and the structure were simply too good to pass up. Frankie O'Dell, who won a bracelet at this year's
WSOP, also took down a $330 DSE II event for $52,950.
I'm focusing on what is happening here in Vegas, but it's impossible to ignore the great turnouts that the Borgata witnessed in Atlantic City for its own summer tournament series. The
Borgata Summer Open, a series of 11 events, was an overwhelming success. It ended with a $5,000 buy-in championship event that drew 337 players and awarded a whopping $513,000 to the first-place finisher, Balint Barta.
Speaking of big results, our cover this issue is graced by none other than Freddy Deeb. Freddy walked away from the 2007
WSOP as the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. champion, winning more than $2.2 million. Deeb always has been one of the game's most successful high-stakes cash-game players, and proved it with this epic win. Read all about the event in this issue.
We also provide details from another batch of
WSOP events featured in The Inside Straight. Notable players like Bill Edler, Ram Vaswani, Robert Mizrachi, and Blair Rodman all picked up their first bracelets, while Frankie O'Dell added his second and Tom Schneider won two bracelets this year.
Last, but certainly not least, Erik Seidel won his eight bracelet, the deuce-to-seven lowball title. He is now tied with Johnny Moss, who also won eight bracelets, and trails only Phil Hellmuth (11), Doyle Brunson (10), and Johnny Chan (10) on the all-time
WSOP leader board.
