The World Series of Poker announced a major change in the prize payouts of the Main Event of the tournament scheduled in July 2015. To the dismay of poker players, $10 million guarantee for the first place has been dropped but the officials disclosed one good news of paying cash prizes to the top 1000 players now onwards.
“The dream of life-changing money is core to the DNA of the WSOP Main Event and we also want to make it easier to experience playing in poker’s Big Show. Our players understand numbers, and 2015 now presents the best odds ever to leave the Main Event a winner”, said WSOP Executive Director Ty Stewart.
In a press release, WSOP elucidated its plans to distribute the prize pool broadly to the growing field of players. As per the officials of WSOP, the larger range of payout will encourage the new players to join and rejoin the flights which eventually boost the prize pool and individual payouts. In 2014, WSOP Main Event drew 6,683 entrants generating a prize pool of $62,825,752. The winner, Martin Jacobson was awarded the 1st prize of $10 million to commemorate the 10th anniversary of this event at the Rio.
WSOP officials are expecting the number of participants to shoot by a sizeable percentage this year eyeing the increase in number of places paid. To do the calculations as per the new rule, if the event gets same turnout as 2014, the WSOP Main Event pay out list will look like:
| 1st place | $8,000,000 |
| 2nd place | $4,663,527 |
| 3rd place | $3,500,000 |
| 4th place | $2,750,000 |
| 5th place | $2,000,000 |
| 6th place | $1,500,000 |
| 7th place | $1,250,000 |
| 8th place | $1,100,000 |
| 9th place | $1,000,000 |
| 10-12th place | $550,000 |
| 50th place | $142,500 |
| 100th place | $50,000 |
| 500th place | $20,850 |
| 693rd place | $16,750 (last year’s last paid place) |
| 694-1,000th place | $15,000 |
It would be noteworthy here that the event must have a minimum of 5,000 participants in order to pay 1,000 places.
The table above assures that everyone on the final table this year will at least become a millionaire which did not happen last year. In 2014, the 8th and 9th places were paid below $1 million. Also, to finish in money in the WSOP Main Event is regarded as an excellent feat specially for the players playing for the first or second time or for those entering the tournament through a local satellite in their country. The decision of paying up to 1,000 places will encourage those players and intensify the competition.
The world’s biggest poker tournament – $10,000 No Limit Holdem WSOP Main Event will run for 10 days from July 5 to July 14, 2015 and will allow players to enter through 3 starting flights respectively on July 5, July 6 and July 7.
Related News: