2018 WSOP Main Event Draws The Second Largest Field In The Tournament's History

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Registration is now closed in the 2018 World Series of Poker $10,000 no-limit hold’em main event and the official numbers have been announced. With 7,874 total entries, the 2018 WSOP main event has attracted the second largest field in the history of this tournament. Only the 2006 main event, which attracted 8,773 players, had a larger turnout.

This year’s Day 1C alone drew 4,571 entries, the largest single daw starting flight ever for the main event. With the 3,303 entries from flights 1A and 1B, the total prize pool this year ballooned to $74,015,600, with a massive $8,800,000 going to this year’s world champion.

Here is a look at the top five WSOP main events in history in terms of field size, and how the 2018 running shapes up in comparison:

Last year’s main event slid to fourth largest as a result of this year’s monster turnout. The event grew roughly 9 percent year-over-year, with each of the three starting flights drawing bigger turnouts than they did in 2017.

“I think with the expanded coverage, the event falling earlier in the schedule, and with this being vacation time for a lot of people with it being a holiday week, I think it being a few days earlier helped bring a few more people,” WSOP Tournament Director Jack Effel told Card Player late on day 1C. “What I can tell you is that the energy and buzz, and the fact that we saw so many new people around here the last several days, that all tells me that there’s some excitement happening in the poker world. People are being exposed to poker. The fact that we have more coverage than we’ve ever had before, that tells me that this is a good thing and that poker is in a really good place.”

The top 1,181 finishers are set to make the money this year, with a min-cash being worth $15,000. With the WSOP making the move to pay out the 15 percent of finishers in recent years, that means that this year’s main event will see the largest number of players ever make the money. The top nine finishers this year will all cash for at least seven figures, with the final nine receiving the following payouts:

1st Place: $8,800,000
2nd Place: $5,000,000
3rd Place: $3,750,000
4th Place: $2,825,000
5th Place: $2,150,000
6th Place: $1,800,000
7th Place: $1,500,000
8th Place: $1,250,000
9th Place: $1,000,000

Check out Card Player TV’s video covering the final numbers for this event below:

For more coverage from the summer series, visit the 2018 WSOP landing page complete with a full schedule, news, player interviews and event recaps.

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