Organizers: Turnout at this year’s World Series of Poker ‘going to be huge’

By Case Keefer (contact)

Wednesday, May 13, 2015 | 2 a.m.

A flood of humanity poured into the Rio’s convention center at the tail end of last June.

No one foresaw the World Series of Poker’s inaugural $1,500 buy-in monster stack tournament producing a wave of 7,862 entrants that made it the second largest event in live poker history.

“In all candor, the turnout for last year’s monster stack was something that caught even us by surprise,” WSOP Executive Director Ty Stewart said. “That will not happen again.”

The 2015 World Series of Poker, which begins on May 27 with the first two of 68 tournaments scheduled through July, will likely produce multiple events with participation above or similar to last year’s monster stack. WSOP officials held their annual media conference call Tuesday morning and reported preliminary indicators were way up going into the 46th annual event.

There’s virtually no doubt that the WSOP will set a record number of entries over the summer for the third consecutive year.

“We don’t like to put out numbers per se,” said Seth Palansky, part of the WSOP’s triumvirate of executives. “It’s all relative but it’s an indication of how things are tracking … It’s going to be huge.”

Last year, the series as a whole drew 82,630 entries to create a total prize pool of around $224 million. It was a near 4 percent increase from the 79,471 people who bought into a tournament in 2013.

But pre-registration for the 2015 WSOP has beaten the total from the last five years combined, according to Stewart. Tournament Director Jack Effel added that hotel rooms have sold at a rate twice as fast as last year for the seven-week span the WSOP lasts.

Much of the advance planning revolves around a new no-limit hold’em tournament dubbed “The Colossus.” At a $565 buy-in, the event scheduled for two starting days on May 29 and May 30 is the cheapest open tournament in WSOP history.

Stewart hinted on a couple of occasions that pre-registration alone has The Colossus eclipsing the 2006 Main Event, which attracted 8,773 buy-ins, as the biggest tournament ever.

“I will go on record for this: If it’s not by a large margin the largest event in the history of poker, it will be a disappointment,” he added.

Stewart and Effel stressed it wasn't only The Colossus driving early interest. The monster stack returns for its second year two weekends later with starting flights scheduled for June 11 and June 12. Year three of the $1,500 buy-in Millionaire Maker, which brought even more players than the monster stack last year if including re-entries, falls in between the two starting on June 5 and June 6.

As for new attractions, the WSOP added a second $1,000 buy-in seniors event, which is annually one of the most entered tournaments. The Super Seniors tournament takes place on June 21, two days after the traditional seniors event, and is open to players at least 65 years old.

The final tournament before the Main Event, poker’s world championship, is another one with an entry more affordable than the previous low $1,000 threshold. The Lucky 7’s no-limit hold’em event carries a $777 price tag.

“We want to make sure we’ve got something for everyone at all price points,” Effel said.

The WSOP believes it’s been able to implement the wider-reaching events without alienating its core customer base of poker professionals. The series will still stage $10,000 buy-in championship events in seven different poker disciplines other than no-limit hold’em as well as the $50,000 buy-in mixed-games Poker Players Championship and a high-roller tournament tagged at $111,111.

The hope is that the inclusion of more players in the earlier tournaments can bolster the $10,000 buy-in Main Event, which will cap off the summer as always. Last year’s Main Event drew 6,683 players — the fifth-most ever — partly because of publicity driven by a $10 million guarantee to the winner.

This year’s gimmick is a promise to pay out a record-high 1,000 players.

“We absolutely believe it’s our responsibility to the game of poker and to the World Series of Poker to bring as many new players to the event and to the city as early as we possibly can,” Stewart said. “We feel there’s a lot of poetry to bookending the World Series of Poker with the biggest bang at the beginning and at the end.”

Officials are urging players to sign up early to secure spots in their desired tournaments and avoid long lines. But either way, the overwhelming crowds won’t be unexpected this year.

“We’re ready to have our biggest event,” Stewart said.

Case Keefer can be reached at 948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.