WSOP 2019, interesting facts and a brief history

We have all heard about poker tournaments and the excitement around them, but there is once particular series of tournaments that brings a peculiar feeling to worldwide poker players and that is the World Series of Poker, mostly known by its acronyms, WSOP.

Sources claim it dates back to the 70s, when Benny Binion invited seven of the best-known poker players to the Horseshoe Casino for a single tournament.

We have come a long way since Harrah’s signed an agreement with 888, to provide its online gaming services and in our current year, WSOP has reached the 50th Anniversary. The live tournament series has managed to smash record after record with a 9% increase in attendance year-on-year.

However, 2019 wasn’t the case for a new record, but we must mention that this year’s attendance of 8,569 figures represents the second-largest field size in the past 50-years and the fourth successive year that the attendance has increased. That has got to count for something.

While some figures go higher, we must mention that the age of the WSOP players is still going down. The age range in the total field demographic shows a dominance of players ranging between 26 to 40.

The average age of 2019 WSOP Main Event participants is 41.46 vs 42.27 recorded in 2018. For males, the average is 41.34 and for females, 44.30.

In whichever way you take it, it is a huge achievement considering the limited options available to the WSOP for online satellite qualification.

It is the year of second best, as the $80,548,600 prize pool is also the second-highest in 50-years and all Final Table Payouts are guaranteed to be of seven-figures with seven-figure pay jumps starting with four players remaining.

One thousand two hundred eighty-six players will receive a minimum of $15,000, which is really good news for everyone taking part in the tournament which is held this year between May 28 and 16 July.

As we have mentioned earlier, the Word Series of Poker has really grown into a global event and now attract players from 87 different countries to make up this year’s field.

Top Ten Countries Represented in 2019 are United States, Canada, United Kingdom, France, China, Germany, Brazil, Australia, Russia and Austria.

But, it’s not all good news when it comes to this year’s tournament. Poker industry media outlets reported that in a strange turn of events, a player has been disqualified for stealing a player’s entire stack as he scooped in a won pot. Georgii Belianin, from Russia, had won a small pot and when reaching out to claim the chips he put his arm around the player to his left’s stack and collected that too. It was alleged by witnesses that he did this with a smile on his face, maybe insinuating that it was supposed to be a joke.

Belianin didn’t get a chance to see anybody laughing, because he shortly got escorted out of the tournament playing area by Jack Effel (World Series of Poker Vice President) and then handed over to security.

PokerCentral has also reported that the 1989 WSOP Main Event Champion, Phil Hellmuth, lasted just five hours in the tournament. It is now surprise after having spent the past days by doing an eight-hour hiking trip up to Machu Pichu, swimming with turtles and penguins, and having deep and meaningful conversations with some of the brightest business minds, such as Golden State Warriors and Los Angeles Dodgers co-owner Peter Guber, Hollywood star Rob Lowe, Los Angeles Dodgers CEO Lon Rosen, super-agent Todd Feldman of CAA, and Jason Sugarman.

But wait, we just arrived to another funny story of this year’s happenings at the WSOP so far (there are still a few days left, so there might be more). An unidentified man, wearing a t-shirt with numbers 55 on the back, has moved all-in and then proceeded to stand up as he waited for his opponent to make a decision. What happened next might be the strangest and most unbelievable thing you’ll ever see at a poker table and especially during a live tournament.

The presumably intoxicated man turned his back to the table and dropped his shorts, exposing his genitalia to everyone in the Pavilion room at the Rio and moments later, he took off his shoe and threw it directly at the dealer. You can find the video online just by searching for ‘WSOP, Man Exposes Himself at Table’.

At the time of writing this article, poker industry media outlets have reported that Preben Stokkan is the likely chip leader as the only player above two million, claiming 2,184,000 to his name.

Three former WSOP Main Event champions are still in the mix for a repeat victory in Chris Moneymaker, Qui Nguyen, and Johnny Chan.

The story will continue…