With more than half the 69 scheduled events now completed in this year’s World Series of Poker, the organisers have posted statistics which indicate that the festival remains very popular with professional and amateur poker players, and is expected to deliver another record turnout by the time the main event concludes.
However, entries to the various events thus far this year are, at 59,507, slightly lower than that achieved in 2015 (59,771), but including satellite competitions and the daily deepstacks, that number soars to 124,844 – up 6.7 percent on the same figure achieved last year.
This year WSOP has attracted players from 98 nations, with the United States providing most at 49,323 followed by Canada (2,287), the UK (1,889), Germany (580), and Russia (549).
Players of 75 different nationalities have cashed so far, and of the 35 bracelets claimed by the halfway mark, 27 went to players from the States. The remainder went to the UK, Spain, Russia, Belgium and Sweden.
$69,072,845 in prize money – an average of $1,973,510 per prize pool – has been paid out to 8,694 “in the money” players so far, which is believed to be a new record and a product of flatter pay-out structures that allow 15 percent of most entry fields to cash.
Last year’s overall total “in the money” players numbered 11,638, so this year’s half-way stat indicates a new record by the end of this series.
WSOP organisers have revealed that the average age of an event entrant this year has been 42.91 years, and that 95.1 of them were males.