Quote:
Originally Posted by borg23
always amusing when a multibillion dollar corporation tries to get nostalgic.
Resort fees parking fees high rake expensive food- yea just like Binions had for wsop...
Meh, I don't mind it. It's about keeping the look/feel of some parts of an establishment while keeping pace with modern realities. Sometimes you have to do the latter to make sure the former can happen. When people long for the "good old days," they often forget that not all parts of the old days were good.
This was a big deal in the 1990s when new major league baseball stadiums started popping up, and it will continue to happen if/when older parks are replaced. e.g. someday the Boston Red Sox will replace Fenway Park. When that happens, they'll (hopefully) do their best to retain what everyone loves about it – old-timey look, the manual scoreboard, the Green Monster. But they will also adjust for the realities of the modern day – larger seats, no large poles to obstruct views, more parking.
Loosely related, does anyone how the rake worked at the WSOP in the "middle years" of its existence (that is, after fields started to grow but pre-boom)? I wondered about it when I was researching trivia bits for the other thread, and borg's post reminded me about this.
It appears 2002 was the last year the WSOP Main Event had no rake. The following year, there was $7,802,700 in the prize pool from 839 players, meaning it was a $9300+700 event. So did the WSOP make up for this with a higher rake in other events? It doesn't seem to, based on a quick glance of the prize pools vs. fields.
Alternatively, were there events that had a rake on top of the listed buy-in that we now don't see? For example, the 1998 $1,500 stud event had 267 entries for a $400,500 prize pool. But in fact, it was $1,500+100 or something.
I know in the earliest days, the WSOP was probably just a loss leader: invite people to come to Vegas to play, charge no rake, but make all of that up from the increased volume of cash games, hotel stays, etc. But by the mid to late 1990s, that seems unsustainable. Even a $2,500 Omaha8 tourney with "only" 200 players will still require a couple dozen knowledgable dealers plus floor/service staff. (Hell, maybe this discrepancy is why Binion's Horseshoe shuttered and how Harrah's could swoop in and acquire the event.)
Anyway, curious... this was all before my time following poker.