WSOP FACTS AND FIGURES

As of the 28th of May 2010, the World Series of Poker began its 41st
season and before the main event dawns on us, it only seems fitting to
review its first 40 years in order to relive some of its highlights and
draw some conclusions about this game that has become the stuff of
legend.

From its simple beginnings in 1971, it has grown from 6 notable poker
players who were invited to play a variety of high stakes poker games
for an entry fee of $5,000 to last year’s main event participated in by
6,494 enthusiasts each one buying in for $10,000. Its attractiveness has
also grown from its earliest first top prize of $30,000 to its current level
of $9 to $10 million average from the last 4 years.

Up to 1977, it was a winner takes all format. The year 1978 saw two
milestones: the first woman, Barbara Freer entered the competition
and the total prize pool was divided among the top 5 finishers. In 1979,
the seemingly impossible happened when the amateur Hal Fowler won
paving the way for all future years for the involvement of all kinds of
players from all over the world.

In 1980, a young upstart from New York, Stu Ungar beat the first back
to back champion in the person of Doyle Brunson who accomplished
this feat in 1976 and 1977. Stu Ungar himself won again in 1981 to
become the second back to back champion, a record which stood for 7
years until Johnny Chan became the third back to back champion when
he won successive tournaments in 1987 and 1988.

Johnny Chan in fact was going for an unprecedented third win in a row
in 1989 when he has stopped from poker immortality by the poker brat
himself, Phil Hellmuth, Jr. While this would be Phil’s only bracelet
from the main event, it is the bracelet which makes him the top bracelet
winner at 11 over Johnny Chan and Doyle Brunson who are both tied
with 10 a piece.

In 1990, the first non-American won the title in the person of Mansour
Matloubi, an Iranian residing in England. By 1991, the first prize has
reached $1 million and never looked back again. In 1997, sixteen years
after his second win, Stu Ungar won the championship for the third
time for a record that has survived the last 13 years up to the present.

In 2003 an online player by the auspicious name of Chris Moneymaker

parlayed a $39 online satellite into the top prize of $2.5 million beating
838 other players. This started a boom of online participants which
jumped to 2,576 entries the following year and which has been growing
ever since.

Subsequently over the years, the following assortment of professions

have come out of the woodworks to win the much coveted title: Greg
Raymer (patent lawyer), Joe Hachem (chiropractor), Jamie Gold (film
producer), Jerry Yang (health psychologist), Peter Eastgate and Joe
Cada (both students).

The last two winners deserve especial mention because Peter Eastgate at
22 in 2008 broken the 19 year old record of Phil Hellmuth, Jr. for being
the youngest winner when Phil won in 1989 at the age of 24. Eastgate’s
record though barely stood a year when in 2009 Joe Cada won at 21
years and 11 months.

Two other poker personalities worth mentioning are T. J. Cloutier and

Dewey Tomko both of whom were runners up twice and have not yet
won the championship. Cloutier went heads up and lost to Bill Smith in
1985 and to Chris Ferguson in 2000 when TJ’s dominating Ace Queen
offsuit was outdrawn by Chris’ Ace Nine offsuit.

Tomko on the other hand went heads up and lost to Jack Strauss in
1982 and Juan Carlos Mortensen in 2001 when his pocket Aces was
cracked by Mortensen’s suited King and Queen. The only other time
that pocket Aces where cracked in a final hand was in 1979 when Bobby
Hoff’s rockets where bad beaten by Hal Fowler’s seven six offsuit.

Interestingly enough, the bullets have never won a final hand in the 40
year history of the WSOP. The highest pair which has closed the
tournament has been pocket Queens, once in 1978 when Bobby Baldwin
beat Crandall Addington’s pocket Nines and again in 1983 when Tom
McEvoy beat Rod Peate’s King Jack suited.
In 39 final hand matches pocket pairs have figured 20 times (exclusive
of 3 pocket versus pocket instances) and have held up 16 times. Twice
in the pair versus pair match up, the dominant pair held up.

It would seem that since 1995, bad beats have ended the main event
tournament quite a number of times, 10 out of 15 to be exact. Of recent
vintage, other notable bad beats during the final hand are the following:

1995 Dan Harrington 9♦ 8♦ 1,000,000 273 Howard Goldfarb A♥ 7♣

1996 Huck Seed 9♦ 8♦ 1,000,000 295 Bruce Van Horn K♣ 8♣
1997 Stu Ungar A♥ 4♣ 1,000,000 312 John Strzemp A♠ 8♣
1998 Scotty Nguyen J♦ 9♣ 1,000,000 350 Kevin McBride Q♥ 10♥
1999 Noel Furlong 5♣ 5♦ 1,000,000 393 Alan Goehring 6♥ 6♣
2000 Chris Ferguson A♠ 9♣ 1,500,000 512 T. J. Cloutier A♦ Q♣
2001 Juan Carlos Mortensen K♣ Q♣ 1,500,000 613 Dewey Tomko A♠ A♥

2003 Chris Moneymaker 5♦ 4♠ 2,500,000 839 Sam Farha J♥ 10♦

2005 Joe Hachem 7♣ 3♠ 7,500,000 5,619 Steve Dannenmann A♦ 3♣

2006 Jamie Gold Q♠ 9♣ 12,000,000 8,773 Paul Wasicka 10♥ 10♠

Of 20 past champions who joined the main event in 2008, only two
namely Johnny Chan and Phil Hellmuth, Jr. finished respectably at
329th and 45th places respectively. Likewise of 20 past champions who
joined the main event in 2009, only six finished respectably in the
following places: Peter Eastgate (78th), Joe Hachem (103rd), Dan
Harrington (252nd), Bobby Baldwin (352nd), Phil Hellmuth, Jr. (436th)
and Chris Ferguson (561st).

It is interesting to note that on both years, the rest of the exchamps were
mostly eliminated on Day 1 or Day 2. One cannot help but wonder why
such poker personalities like Doyle Brunson and Dan Harrington, both
renowned authors of poker books, bust out so early. This should say a
lot about the systems and the principles they teach their readers.

Another point of interest is the composition of the final table over the
last 10 years. One would expect familiar names to keep on cropping up.
This is not the case however because out of 90 possible names, there
were actually 87 new names because only 3 persons appeared twice in
10 years. They are: Mike Matusow who placed 5th and 6th respectively
in 2009 and 2001; Jeff Shulman who placed 9th and 7th respectively in
2005 and 2000; and Dan Harrington who placed 4th and 3rd respectively
in 2004 and 2003.

Familiar exchamps are busting out early and new names are
dominating the final tables. Is this a recent trend possibly brought
about by the spike in attendance which started in 2004 ? Let us
therefore look at another ten year period from the year 1990 to 1999
and find out. (Please note that WSOP reporting then mostly covered
just the last six finalists.)

Out of 60 possible names, there were actually 53 new names because

only 7 persons appeared twice in these 10 years. They are: Huck Seed
who won in 1996 and placed 6th in 1999; Hamid Dasmalchi who won in
1992 and placed 4th in 1995; Mansour Matloubi who won in 1990 and
placed 4th in 1993; Hans Lund who placed 2nd in 1990 and 3rd in 1992;
John Bonetti who placed 3rd in both 1993 and 1996; Dave Crunkleton
who placed 3rd in 1990 and 5th in 1992; and Al Krux who placed 6th in
1990 and 5th in 1994.

As can readily be seen from this, even during the nineties when entries
ranged only from 194 in the year 1990 to 393 in the year 1999, the
champions of the past 20 years were nowhere near the final tables and
probably even busting out early too. The possible reasons will be the
subject of another study so please keep posted.

The current structure of the main event calls for an eight day
elimination round down to the final table. At least 4 levels per day are
played with each level lasting 120 minutes. The starting stack is 30,000
chips with the small blind at 50 and only increased in increments of 50
over the next six levels. This is certainly very different from your
ordinary garden variety of tournament. Everyone’s greatest problem is
how to productively use the time. Nonetheless newbies are surviving
while the veterans are falling by the wayside.

As an analyst I would like to predict that the 2010 champion would

come from the following names none of whom have won the main event:
Ylon Schwartz, Michael Binger and Dan Harrington. I would be remiss
if I did not also give Daniel Negreanu a sporting chance.