Online Poker Tips: Online Poker's Effect on the WSOP

Online Poker, Tournaments
November 3 2008

The World Series of Poker is poker’s biggest tournament of the year. It’s the dream of any poker player to win the WSOP Main Event, and online poker rooms know that getting players into this tournament helps them in many ways.

When Chris Moneymaker won the 2003 WSOP Main Event, there were 839 entrants. After that, the poker boom began and online sites began to offer WSOP satellites to the Main Event to their patrons. The next year the entrants more than doubled to over 2,500, and by 2006 there were more than 8,000 entrants. Numbers decreased slightly last year because Harrah’s was forced to refuse entries from online sites. Even with this issue, there were still over 6,000 entrants last year. This year promises to be as big as last year, and most likely closer to the numbers of 2006.

Now online sites simply give the money to players who win a satellite into the Main Event. It’s up to them to decide if they’re going to go or not. In addition to winning a seat, players that win satellites and agree to wear the poker site’s brand can earn extra money if they go deep in the tournament and get on television.

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