The World Sequence of Poker actually can’t be accused of missing ambition. The NSUS-GGPoker owned WSOP actually introduced that ambition in droves within the second iteration of WSOP Paradise in The Bahamas.
The poker world was placed on discover in July when the WSOP made the eye-opening announcement that they might be returning to The Bahamas for one more model of WSOP Paradise. However the actual sting within the tail was the $50 million assure Tremendous Predominant Occasion, the biggest assure in poker match historical past.
This was after all, undoubtedly a response to rival model World Poker Tour laying declare to the month of December with a $40 million assure WPT Championship at Wynn Las Vegas which ran in direct competitors with the primary WSOP Paradise in 2023.
The WPT missed that $40 million assure by $2.4 million as their bold goal got here up simply brief. However that didn’t cease the WSOP from going $10 million bigger on their assure.
The $25,000 buy-in WSOP Paradise Tremendous Predominant Occasion had 4 opening flights scheduled. A complete of two,000 entries have been wanted to succeed in the assure whereas something fewer than 1,900 entries would break the file for the biggest overlay ever. (The Seminole Arduous Rock Poker Open in 2014 had a $2.5 million overlay.)
With low numbers within the early flights, particularly the low day 1C turnout, there was rising concern that this bold occasion would find yourself happening in flames with the biggest overlay in historical past and probably put the way forward for the occasion in jeopardy.
However there was a groundswell effort from GGpoker to shut in on the assure and get as near it as attainable. The primary push got here from the web flight, which only a few folks knew the precise numbers of because it was saved beneath shut wraps. Because it seems, there have been 600 on-line entrants, which made up a whopping $15 million of the prize pool.
Ultimately, after a lot fanfare and hypothesis, the ultimate numbers ended up being 1,978 which created a $550,000 overlay. Nonetheless a big hit, however nowhere close to the catastrophic quantity that had been feared. (The prize pool was really $48.5 million, with $1.5 million going to vendor and workers charges.)
The match even nonetheless turned a revenue, gathering $1,000 from every entry for a complete of $1,978,000 in rake. In actual fact, the 15-event collection collected greater than 10.4 million in rake total, plus one other $2.5 million in workers charges.
Components Main To Overlay
Whereas the overlay was not practically as unhealthy because it may have been, there are nonetheless a number of issues to evaluate as to why it did certainly overlay and why there was a worry of it being better.
Whereas dwell poker is in a wholesome spot proper now, there’s nonetheless a finite quantity of gamers on the market who’re prepared to play an extended match collection at excessive buy-ins. And WSOP Paradise was simply certainly one of three main occasions occurring concurrently.
There was additionally the WPT Wynn collection, which backed off their large assure and as a substitute held a $5 million freeroll for the gamers. The Las Vegas collection was rather more accessible for a lot of Individuals and the EPT Prague collection which was rather more handy for a lot of European gamers.
The Bahamas is considerably tough to get into, with extra restricted flights. With Atlantis being situated on Paradise Island, north of Nassau town, there are additionally fewer choices for lodging, because it’s probably on property or bust for a participant who’s going to return to play for a number of days.
The property itself could be very good, but additionally extra tuned for {couples} or households with youngsters. So gamers who wish to go for poker alone could want elsewhere. There may be additionally the truth that many poker occasions over time have been performed on the Atlantis so there could also be a case of burnout for some who’ve been earlier than prior to now.
That left a fewer pool of gamers for the WSOP to attract from. An issue alleviated by the truth that the WSOP allowed for a number of re-entries in many of the tournaments.
As evidenced by the Tremendous Predominant Occasion buy-in of $25,000, WSOP Paradise was extra geared towards the excessive curler scene this yr, even partnering with the Triton Poker collection for a pair occasions.
Whereas the summer time WSOP in Vegas does a great job of catering to the mid and decrease stakes participant demographic, WSOP Paradise did no such factor, with no occasions decrease than a $2,500 purchase in. That after all restricted the sphere to gamers with bigger bankrolls.
And eventually there’s the easy incontrovertible fact that costs on Paradise Island in The Bahamas are simply very excessive. It might not look like an enormous deal to excessive rollers paying many hundreds in buy-ins for poker, however issues like price of meals can nonetheless be a deterrent and a blow to morale.
It’s virtually unattainable to discover a strong sit down meal for lower than $30, offering no consolation after an early exit on the tables.
Who is aware of what the WSOP will do in December transferring ahead. As of now, gamers stay comparatively break up between all three collection. Is the poker world sufficiently big to maintain such a division? I suppose we’ll discover out when the schedules for 2025 come out if any of the excursions are prepared to surrender any floor.
*Pictures by WSOP
