Steve Marcus
Qui Nguyen of Las Vegas celebrates his 2016 World Series of Poker Main Eventwin.
By Case Keefer (contact)
Thursday, June 6, 2024 | 2 a.m.
Thousands upon thousands of cardplayers flock to Las Vegas every summer for the chance to win millions of dollars in the world’s most prestigious set of annual poker tournaments.
The World Series of Poker seems to stage a bigger spectacle each year, and the 2024 edition is no different. The constant chirping of chips and bemoaning of bad beats has taken over Horseshoe Las Vegas and Paris Las Vegas on the Strip for the third straight year as part of an eight-week extravaganza.
The $10,000 buy-in Main Event, starting July 3 this year and expected to run through July 17, annually gets the most attention as the crown jewel considered poker’s world championship, but there’s plenty else to anticipate too.
Here’s a look at the World Series of Poker by the numbers.
• 99: Official tournaments for a coveted championship bracelet, running from the May 28 start to the July 21 conclusion. That’s the most ever, topping last year’s schedule of 95 live bracelet events.
• $403 million: Total prize pool last year spread across the 95 events, an all-time high. With interest peaking and a larger schedule, this year’s WSOP should top it.
• 10,043: Entrants in the 2023 Main Event, the most ever. The WSOP had come close to breaking the 8,773-entrant bar set in 2006 on multiple occasions before, but finally smashed it last year.
• 23,068: Entrants in last year’s first-ever Gladiators event, which made for the second-largest live poker tournament ever. The 2019 WSOP still holds the record from when its $500 buy-in “Big 50,” which celebrated the event’s 50th anniversary, spurred 28,371 entries.
• 214,641: Total entrants spread across last year’s 95 events, another record that should fall this summer.
• $300: The smallest buy-in bracelet event ever, the “Gladiators of Poker” no-limit Hold ‘Em tournament, beginning June 6. For most of its history, the WSOP maintained a strict $1,500 buy-in minimum for its event but organizers have lowered entries aggressively to attract more skill levels over the past decade.
• $250,000: This year’s biggest buy-in bracelet event, the “Super High Roller” no-limit Hold ‘Em tournament, beginning June 21. Sixty-nine of the best players in the world registered for the event last year, with former University of Oregon track star Chris Brewer ultimately prevailing for a $5.2 million first-place price.
• 8: Years since a Las Vegas local has won the Main Event. Qui “Tommy Gun” Nguyen was the most recent, as the high-stakes gambler and Aria Poker Room regular memorably used an ultra-aggressive style to best a field of 6,737 for $8 million in 2016.
• 3: Straight years an American has won the Player of the Year award for best performance across all events on the schedule. Once considered an award for only the most well-known and wealthy players, that perception has started to change. Previous unknown Ian Matakis, a 26-year-old from Fairbault, Minnesota, claimed the prize last year by cashing in 22 events and winning a $500 buy-in online tournament.
• 4: Straight years an international player had won the Main Event, the longest run ever, before Daniel Weinman outlasted last year’s record field to win the first-place prize of $12.1 million. The Atlanta-based pro didn’t come out of obscurity, as he had previously won a WSOP bracelet the year before in a $1,000 buy-in Pot Limit Omaha tournament.
• 17: Career bracelets won by Phil “The Poker Brat” Hellmuth, the most of all time. Hellmuth’s most recent win came last year when he took down the $10,000 buy-in Super Turbo Bounty No-Limit Hold ‘Em tournament for $803,818. Hellmuth now has a big cushion between himself and a four-way tie for second place in the bracelet count. Phil Ivey, Erik Seidel, Johnny Chan and the late Doyle Brunson are tied for second with 10 bracelets apiece.
• 114: Different countries represented at last year’s WSOP, another record high. Players from 24 different countries ultimately won bracelets.
• 67: Different countries have produced bracelet winners in the 54-year history of the tournament.
• 2: Different countries claimed bracelets for the first time last year. Pavel Plesuv got Moldova in the record books by winning the $1,500 buy-in Millionaire Maker event for $1.2 million before Thai Ha of Vietnam prevailed in the $1,500 buy-in Short Deck No-Limit Hold ‘Em tournament for $111,170.
• $22,365,691: All-time WSOP earnings by local pro Antonio Esfandiari, which currently sits first in the record books. Fellow local mainstay Daniel Negreanu is closing in, however, and only about $230,000 behind. Esfandiari has held the lead ever since winning the $1 million buy-in Big One for One Drop tournament for $18.3 million in 2012. Hellmuth sits in the third behind the pair with $17.9 million of lifetime earnings.
This story appeared in Las VegasWeekly.
