World Series of Poker Plans Some Changes for 2010

The 2009 Main Event $8.5 Million Grand Prize (Photo courtest of WSOP/Harrah’s)

While the 2009 tournament may have just ended, the World Series of Poker already has plans to improve the event in 2010. Continuing a tradition set in place by the recently resigned commissioner Jeffrey Pollack WSOP officials have been quick to identify some of the issues with this year’s event, and just as quickly figure out ways to fix those problems.

One of the big issues was that the main event in 2009 sold out on the last day of entry. That’s not supposed to happen. Historically, it’s been open to anyone who can pony up the $10,000 entry fee. The problem this last year was that one of the starting days fell on July 4th. Not a lot of players entered that day, leaving a glut of people wanting to get in on the action on the last day. But with limited numbers of seats and tables, hundreds of would-be entrants were turned away.

That issue has provoked two changes to next year’s event. For one, action won’t take place on July 4th next year. And they’ll also be expanding the number of tables. The hope is that both those changes, combined with the increasing press coverage of the event, will result in even more entrants to the main event.

Even though main event entries were down in 2009 compared to 2008, the total number of players for the entire WSOP was up. 2009 saw 60,875 people register for the various events. That’s 2,000 more than in 2008. And, amazingly, it’s 57,000 more than competed in 2000.

That rise was sparked mainly by increased interest in the lower buy-in events, not surprising given the state of the world’s economy. The $1,000 No-limit Hold ‘Em event, for example, drew 6,000 players. WSOP officials say they’ll reflect that trend when they schedule for 2010.

And if you’re not planning on attending next year’s event, you’ll be able to take in the action on ESPN again. The sports network recently signed a contract that will have them covering the event through 2017, at least.