In just a few hours, thousands of players will be taking their seats at the Rio in Las Vegas for the start of the 2011 World Series of Poker Main Event. Each player will be contributing $10,000 towards the prize pool for their chance at several million dollars in addition to the WSOP Main Event bracelet, the single most prestigious award in the world of poker.
Meanwhile, the ominous cloud of Black Friday continues to hang over the poker industry’s head. Although Black Friday only directly affects online poker, the fact that so many U.S. players still have their funds tied up at Full Tilt Poker, Absolute Poker and UB Poker is creating more questions than answers in the immediate hours before the Main Event: Will Phil Ivey be proven right? Will attendance numbers for the main event dwindle so that many players are potentially unable to afford the buy-in? Could Black Friday ultimately serve as the wrench in the machine that was put into action when Chris Moneymaker won the Main Event in 2003, eventually driving professional poker back into obscurity?
Many experts are saying no. Despite Black Friday, attendance numbers have actually been up for most of the events so far. 7,319 players entered the main event last year, the largest roster since 2006 when 8,773 players bought in. Robbie Thompson, the WSOP’s tournament director, says he doesn’t expect Black Friday to have “any effect.”
Annie Duke doesn’t share Thompson’s enthusiasm. The famed pro poker player noted that players will have a harder time justifying a $10,000 buy-in than a $1,000 or $1,500 one. Further complicating things is the fact that no U.S. online poker for the past 3 months means a huge reduction in online qualifiers. Many of the players who would’ve entered the Main Event for free with the help of an online poker room will need to choose between ponying up the full entry fee themselves or avoiding the tournament entirely.
Of course, we won’t know the full roster size until after the weekend. Although the Main Event starts today, “Day 1″ of the event won’t effectively conclude until Sunday, July 10.
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