Quote:
Originally Posted by Utah_CUtiger
There will never be another "poker boom"" nor does there need to be. The # of main event entrants from 2003-2006 increased by over 1,000%. If that happened again, the main event would reach 70,000 entrants.
The WSOP Main Event was well on its way to a field size of 10,000 or greater during the height of the online poker boom before two things changed:
1) The Nevada Gaming Commission (or other regulator) prohibited "Third Party Buyins". This was huge. When you won a satellite on Stars for example, you never had to handle or see the actual $10K, Stars would buy you into the Main Event as a third party, and you just showed up and collected your seat number. The rule change made it so that Stars (and others) had to deposit the $10K into your online account and it was the players responsibility to withdraw it if need be, and buy himself into the Main Event. There was quite a bit of "slippage" of players who just took the $10K and didn't register for the Main Event.
2) Black Friday - don't really need to say anything here as its obvious.
Before both #1 and #2 happened, I believe there was a year when PokerStars alone accounted for approximately 20%-25% of the total Main Event field size.
If we could ever get back to allowing Third Party buyins, and roll back Black Friday, the Main Event (and other field sizes) could see massive growth again.
Last edited by TheFly; 07-27-2017 at 01:47 PM.