BLOG – The 2010 WSOP highlights, facts and figures
Friday, 9 July 2010
The 2010 World Series of Poker played 57 events with a total of 55 open events (the restricted ones being the $500 Casino Employees tournament and the $1,000 Ladies’ Event) and the turnout and prize pool both were record-breaking. In total, 71,192 players competed in the 55 open events that awarded a total prize pool of $185,879,205 after the juice.
The Main Event alone saw 7,319 entrants with a total prize pool of $68,798,600 while the next-biggest event in terms of prize pool was Event #2; the $50,000 Players’ Championship ($5,568,000).
So, wow. By comparison, the 2010 Wimbledon Championships only paid out... well, “only” paid out a little less than £14,000,000. The only sporting event that can touch that is the 2010 FIFA World Cup, which has a total kitty of $420,000,000. Hang about – where does that money come from? The $200,000,000 or so paid up at the WSOP (I’m ignoring rake here) came from the 70,000 plus players... bloody football and its horrific amount of money.
Well, now that you know the vital statistics let’s take a look at some highlights from the past 54 events that have awarded World Series of Poker bracelets to their victors and paid out prize money of over $100,000,000 so far:
The Unstoppable Mizrachi Brothers
Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi was known for the few months prior to this WSOP as owing the Inland Revenue a not-inconsiderable six-figure sum, and rumours began to fly around the forums that he was in danger of going broke. Robert “Michael’s Brother” Mizrachi was known for his whole poker career prior to this WSOP as Michael’s brother. That status will change for both players.
Between the two siblings they have amassed $2,127,093 in tournament winnings including nine cashes (five for Robert, four for Michael); of which six were final tables (three apiece); plus the addition of one WSOP bracelet in the most prestigious event of the tournament series, the $50,000 8-game rotation Players’ Championship.
So yeah... don’t mess with the Mizrachis. They’ll beat you at poker.
Phil Ivey’s 8th bracelet
Gay little fanboy though I may be, no one can deny it is truly awesome that Phil Ivey secured his eighth WSOP bracelet (and likely several million dollars in prop bets) in the $3,000 H.O.R.S.E. event. Is Phil Hellmuth worried yet? He should be; it’s honestly not at all inconceivable that Ivey will have made it 11 by this time next year, especially if you include the WSOPE – which Hellmuth undoubtedly won’t unless he wins a bracelet there. He’s the only player that I can say I would not be surprised at if he won three bracelets at the next WSOP.
A humble Kiwi saves the poker economy.
“Are your bracelet bets worth seven figures to you?” Asked Andy Black to Tom Dwan at one of the preliminary events of this WSOP. Dwan snap-called “yes, of course.”
“Are they worth eight figures?” Black pushed. Dwan had. To. Think. About. It. This puts the figure, surely, at close to $10,000,000; Mike Matusow, mouthing off as he will, claimed that if durrrr had won his bracelet then it would have been worth over $12m. We’re not exaggerating when we say it would have had a discernible effect on the high stakes economy.
Of course, people started to get worried when Dwan made it to the final table of one of the $1,500 NL events holding the chip lead. They got even more worried when he started heads-up play against New Zealand pro Simon Watt – the players in the $10,000 Stud championships were spending less time looking at upcards and raising fifth street bets than they were railing the heads-up confrontation. Negreanu and Matusow literally skipped back to their Stud games when durrrr succumbed to the luck of tournaments.
No one expects the British inquisition.
Of course, the best part of the WSOP for us was the fantastic performance put in by UK players in 2010. Hit Squaddie and pal of last year’s November Niner James Akenhead, Praz Bansi, got things off to a roaring start by winning Event #5 ($1,500 NL). Neil Channing and Stuart Rutter followed this up impressively by placing second and third in the $5,000 NL shootout. Overall, five bracelets and over $4.1m are coming across the Atlantic with the likes of Channing, Bansi and our POTY contender James Dempsey, who managed three final tables including one runner-up spot and one win.
Keep up to date with all the news from the poker world by following us on Twitter and Facebook.
Tags:
Poker News, BLOG, –, The, 2010, WSOP, highlights, , facts, and, figures