2008 World Series of Poker Draws a Lot of International Poker Players

On July 10th, 2008, an influx of overseas poker players has helped the WSOP improved its numbers this year even if the usual tourist influx and gaming in Las Vegas has dropped. Tournament spokesperson Seth Palansky commented that the WSOP drawn out more participants from around the world than ever before despite the weak American economy. Participants from around 118 countries participated in the fifty-five events.

Scattered throughout the 6,844 players in the $10,000 buy-in cost main event were participants from seventy-two different countries besides players from all fifty U.S. states. The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority said that a historic number of players have participated in the fifty-five day event, forty seven days poker event, despite a decline in gaming profits. Clark County, where the Las Vegas Strip casinos, slide down by 3.7% from last year through the month of April.

Officials stated that the player registration for the series improved by eight percent last year and the total cash pool for all of the poker events improved by thirteen percent, to $180.7 million from $159.8 million last year. The top cash prize to be given on November 11th, 2008 for the no limit Texas Holdem main event also improved up to $9.12 million.

The 2005 WSOP Main Event champion from Australia, Joe Hachem commented that poker is only spreading all over the world right now because of the continuous media exposure. Jerry Yang, the 2007 WSOP Main Event champion, was knocked out of the tournament but was able to finished with money said that you can meet a lot of new friends by playing poker.

08/05/2008, Tuesday
Sherry Barlow

2008 World Series of Poker Draws a Lot of International Poker Players

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