Attendance at this year's WPT Championship (239) was down sharply from 2014, when 328 players turned out. I am of the opinion that most players are getting weary of the extreme top heavy payout structures of certain events. 10th place in this field paid just 1.3%, slightly less than 3x the initial BI of $15,400.

Payout Structure:

1 $973,683
2 $573,779
3 $330,358
4 $267,764
5 $208,647
6 $173,873
7 $139,098
8 $104,324
9 $69,549
10 $45,207

11 - 12 $45,207
13 - 15 $38,252
16 - 18 $34,775
19 - 27 $31,297

Would a more balanced payout structure help increase attendance ?

Is the WPT hurting itself w/such top heavy payout structures ?

At a time when live Poker Events seem to be still drawing big #'s, curious to here thoughts on why the sharp decline on this event.

Liquidity contraction in world from all broke governments chasing money to fund the lifestyles/perqs of politicians and their cronies.

Not as much big money around that doesn't want questions asked that can be thrown around.

Or did the first $15K championship at Borgata simply have some sort of honeymoon effect, and everything simply corrected for 2015?

The total prize pool of this year's WPT championship ($3.46 million) was fairly comparable to that of 2013 ($3.54 million) and 2012 ($3.66 million). Of course, those were way down from previous years: 2011 ($5.31 million), 2010 ($4.73 million), 2009 ($8.17 million), 2008 ($13.22 million), etc.

My point is that you can't really read much into the numbers from this year. This has been an ongoing trend since BF, which should be surprising to no one.

Plus, the World Poker Tour in general seems to have diminished in "cool factor" for a long while. Hell, I'm as big a televised poker viewer there is, and even I haven't considered the WPT as appointment watching in more than five years. Yet I gleefully watched some weird kid dress up as a giraffe for some made-for-TV poker SNG.

Real reason: Because AC is a ****hole and no one wants to go there.

This is likely the main reason.

has its ****holeness increased by 25% from PY?

there were no rebuys this year compared to last

Maybe people are saving money for upcoming things such as WSOP or the big fight. Plus there are a lot of "better" tournaments and high rollers which are super popular these days with pros.

fyp

If judged by all the casino closures, yes.

this. buck the wpt and the royal flush girls.

Last year it had a 5 million guarantee

Flatter payout structures across large buy in MTTs certainly wouldn't hurt player numbers imo. Bad for marketing but great for us.

Why did the WPT Championship relocate from Bellagio? Hadn't realised this was the second year it was in AC.

Borgata is a great hotel, casino, & spa, and is a great environment for poker.

This is true.

AC being a gigantic ****hole is also true.

last year had 2 starting days with a 5 million guarantee. you could re-enter 1b if you busted or forfeited 1a.

this year only had 1 starting day with 1 entry max per person. a lot of the biggest named pros were absent maybe because of the EPT Monte Carlo starting today.

This field would be bigger if it was at the Hardrock in FLA

BECAUSE POKER IS DYING.

Payout structures absolutely have to be adjusted imo. Paying 10% of a field with> 200 players is horrible imo. I pay $500 (weeks pay for a lot of people) to play a 3 day tourney with 2k players and I have to beat 1800 to cash? Lol. HUGE turnoff for rec players imo and they are starting to realize its not worth it. The structures need to go to 20% at least or maybe scale it better before you lose the recs that are the life of the game. Maybe 0-200 pay 10%, 201-500 15%, 501-1000 20%, 1001-2000 22.5%, 2001-4000 25%, 4000+ 30%. You still have to beat a reasonable amount of people to cash.

Also, in the OP tourney, 65x your buy in is ridiculous imo. 1st place player only beat out 9 more players than 10th yet gets 22.5x more money? 8 or 9x seems more reasonable imo. Why isnt say 20x your buyin not enough? 300k for a 15k investment and less than a weeks work seems a nice bink. Also, I think min cash should be your buyin back. Hey, you didnt lose any money right? Better luck next time!!

More people actually cashing in events and keeping the "wow, maybe I can do this" dream alive cant possibly be bad for the continued growth of live tournament poker. I think there can/should be a serious discussion amongst all tourmament directors about drastically adjusting payout structures. I know, I know, the "1 mega 1st prize!" is awesome and all, but 300-400k for a weeks work is ridiculously good too. The recs are realizing that winning a poker tournament isnt anywhere near as easy as the moneymaker effect lead them to believe. However, cashing a tournament then working from there is much more attainable. So, why not make it a little (and thats what it will be considering field sizes) easier for more people to make a little money?

Time to stop with the degenerate gambler mentality of top heavy structures and 10% field payouts imho. This is the time to actually do something as we see participation starting to slide.

Ah, didn't know about the rebuys last year. So yeah, that explains the one-year bump.

Hard to believe the first prize was once almost 4 million for this event. But all the reasons above plus the fact that there are so many more bigger buy in events than before black friday.

I'd move the event away from the congested period of late April-early May if I were running the event.

If it's really held in AC then ya, that's a ****ing problem. You been there? I did a few times and don't wanna go back but I have casinos in my area.


That and there is no real marketing when the government is ****ing with the free market of this industry. It's just a cluster**** at the moment.

So much more competition these days.

It is the timing. EPT grand finale had all the European Pros. If this event was a week or two ago it would have been better off.

+1