WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack Explains WSOP Main Event Sell Out

World Series of Poker officials were hit hard on July 6th, 2009 when more than three thousand players showed up to register for the last day of the WSOP Main Event and hundreds were turned away due to lack of capacity. Poker pros and poker amateurs were disheartened by their inability to participate in the 2009 WSOP. For a lot of poker players, it was their first time to participate in the WSOP Main Event and instead they will have to wait for next year.

WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack said that it was the most difficult decision they have to make. When every last participant was counted, the 2009 WSOP Main Event field was made up of 6,494 players, which was down by 300 players from the 2008 WSOP Main Event. Pollack said that it was in the best interest to have as many participants in the WSOP Main Event as possible. He added that the last thing they want to do is deny poker enthusiasts entry into their poker events.

Pollack stated that the last thing they want to do is to deny poker players entry into their events and they simply experienced an operational problem. According to Commissioner Pollack, the world series of poker is already reviewing methods to avoid the repeat of the situation. Although there were different choices for World Series of Poker organizers to try accommodate everyone in, including playing ten handed, none were deemed acceptable to the rest of the field.

WSOP officials has started to plan next year's World Series of Poker and had promised to find a way that players would not be denied participation in the WSOP Main Event again. Pollack also cleared rumors that well-known poker players like Patrik Antonius were able to participate into this year WSOP Main Event while the average poker player was left out. He said that they are not practicing favoritism in the tournament.

07/28/2009, Tuesday
Todd Sanders

WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack Explains WSOP Main Event Sell Out

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