The World Series 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’d be returning to The Bahamas for an additional model of WSOP Paradise. But the actual sting within the tail was the $50 million assure Super Main Event, the biggest assure in poker event historical past.
This was in fact, 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 quick. But that didn’t cease the WSOP from going $10 million bigger on their assure.
The $25,000 buy-in WSOP Paradise Super Main Event had 4 opening flights scheduled. A complete of two,000 entries have been wanted to achieve the assure whereas something fewer than 1,900 entries would break the file for the biggest overlay ever. (The Seminole Hard 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 taking place in flames with the biggest overlay in historical past and probably put the way forward for the occasion in jeopardy.
But there was a groundswell effort from GGpoker to shut in on the assure and get as near it as attainable. The foremost push got here from the net flight, which only a few folks knew the precise numbers of because it was stored beneath shut wraps. As it seems, there have been 600 on-line entrants, which made up a whopping $15 million of the prize pool.
Eventually, after a lot fanfare and hypothesis, the ultimate numbers ended up being 1,978 which created a $550,000 overlay. Still a major hit, however nowhere close to the catastrophic quantity that had been feared. (The prize pool was truly $48.5 million, with $1.5 million going to vendor and workers charges.)
The event even nonetheless turned a revenue, amassing $1,000 from every entry for a complete of $1,978,000 in rake. In truth, the 15-event sequence collected greater than 10.4 million in rake total, plus one other $2.5 million in workers charges.
Factors Leading To Overlay
While the overlay was not almost as unhealthy because it might have been, there are nonetheless a number of issues to evaluate as to why it did certainly overlay and why there was a concern of it being larger.
While reside poker is in a wholesome spot proper now, there’s nonetheless a finite quantity of gamers on the market who’re keen to play a protracted event sequence at excessive buy-ins. And WSOP Paradise was simply considered one of three main occasions occurring concurrently.
There was additionally the WPT Wynn sequence, which backed off their huge assure and as an alternative held a $5 million freeroll for the gamers. The Las Vegas sequence was far more accessible for a lot of Americans and the EPT Prague sequence which was far 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 more than likely on property or bust for a participant who’s going to come back 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 need to go for poker alone might want elsewhere. There can be 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. A downside alleviated by the truth that the WSOP allowed for a number of re-entries in many of the tournaments.
As evidenced by the Super Main Event buy-in of $25,000, WSOP Paradise was extra geared towards the excessive curler scene this 12 months, even partnering with the Triton Poker sequence for a pair occasions.
While the summer season 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 in fact restricted the sector to gamers with bigger bankrolls.
And lastly there’s the easy incontrovertible fact that costs on Paradise Island in The Bahamas are simply very excessive. It might not seem to be a giant 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 is nearly not possible to discover a stable 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 shifting ahead. As of now, gamers stay comparatively cut up between all three sequence. 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 keen to surrender any floor.
*Photos by WSOP
