Quote:
Originally Posted by Xenoblade
??
wasn’t last year the biggest wsop ever?
This year isn’t last year. The possible concerns people might be responding to that are mentioned in my post are significantly higher this year.
Not only that, but the WSOP are masters at manipulating their data/reported data to fit the narrative they’re creating.
For example, I was watching part of the Gladiator event from last year on PokerGo and the announcers keep talking about how they had 23,000 entries and blah blah blah. Turns out it was right around 10,000 unique entries while more than half of the 23,000 entries were rebuys. The way they reported it was clearly an attempt to make it sound as though 23,000 people had entered the tournament when that was not the case.
So “biggest WSOP ever” is based on whatever metric they’re using. I believe they’re talking about number of Main Event entries. Which is fine. But I think inflation worked in its favor for that particular event. $10,000 just isn’t what it used to be so, naturally, more people are able to take a shot.
While that’s still true this year, I think last year, people were more optimistic about the economy and state of the world. I think they believed the high inflation was temporary while, this year, it certainly seems to be more of a permanent situation. Plus, inflation has had an additional year to deal a negative punch to people.
And again, this is an election year and last year wasn’t. Both WWIII and a possible second US Civil War are becoming more and more realistic this year than they were last year. Fear is high while optimism is low.
Lastly, have you heard a single person at all this year talk about how excited they are for the WSOP? I haven’t. Not one. Not on this forum, not in real life, nowhere. Obviously, there are some people who are excited, especially first-timers. But the thrill is just empty this year. ESPN jumped ship a few years back and viewership isn’t nearly what it used to be. Shoot, even the production quality of the broadcast has diminished.
Will they still have a large turnout? Sure. Will they spin data to fit their narrative? Of course. But I really do believe that this year will be a sudden turning point for the WSOP as well as poker as a whole.
On the other hand, it’s 2:00 am and I’m battling my first (and hopefully last) ever kidney stone so I’ve been heavily medicated the last 5-6 days and operating off of virtually zero sleep so I’m rambling and possibly making zero sense.