World Series of Poker Has Record-Breaking Year

Another summer of poker, more milestones reached.

The 2008 World Series of Poker was the largest poker series in world history, breaking last year’s total entrant high watermark by 4,432, with 52,720 entries collected. It also beat last year’s total prize pool by $20,880,030, with $180,676,248 won (or soon will be won via the main event) by players in the Series' 55 events.

The main event has both the second-largest prize-pool and the second-largest playing field in history. Its $64,333,600 prize pool and 6,844 entrants only fall behind the 2006 main event, which sported a prize pool of $82,512,162 generated by 8,773 entrants.

Another significant milestone was the number of entrants who live outside of the United States. This year, 118 different countries were represented, up from 87 last year, 54 in 2006, 41 in 2005, and 24 in 2004. Players from nearly 60 countries cashed.

Also, players from every state and Canadian province cashed in events.

The second event this summer, a $1,500 no-limit hold’em event, attracted the most entrants of any live poker tournament in history, excluding WSOP main events. The event attracted 3,929 entrants.

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