WSOP Breaks Record For Biggest Online Poker Event In History

(Photo: WSOP.com)

Last year, the World Series of Poker took a very important step towards regulating the online poker industry in the United States and instead of luring the online grinders to the live poker tables, they brought the notorious gold bracelet to the world wide web. That’s how the WSOP.com Online No Limit Holdem Championship was born, an event like no other played almost exclusively from the comfort of the players’ temporary or permanent homes. Only the final table was played live in a real poker room in front of a real audience.

For this year, the WSOP decided to keep this format untouched but, in order to make it bigger and better, they still made a few minor tweaks. Those tweaks were a game-changer setting, new heights, and rewriting U.S. regulated online poker history.

(Photo: WSOP.com)

First Online Tournament With A Seven-Figure Prize Pool In The U.S.

As opposed to last year, the WSOP included to ability to register after the start of the online event plus unlimited re-entries. The only requirement that players had to meet in order to be eligible was to connect to WSOP.com within the boundaries of Nevada, and of course pay the buy-in of $1,000. 927 players did so last Friday, many of them even trying several bullets in order to reach the grand final table stage. So at the end of the day, 1,327 buy-ins were paid and the prize pool soared to $1,184,650, making Event #66 the biggest poker tournament in the U.S. regulated online poker history.

Last year, 905 registered to this unique online event and none had the opportunity to re-enter. The prize pool was $859,750 with Anthony ‘casedismised’ Spinella winning the top prize of almost $200,000.

Four Different Countries Represented At The Final Table

Spinella had to deal with only one foreigner at the final table in 2015 to win the online bracelet. This year’s winner however, a Las-Vegas based player, had to get past five players from four different countries on the live green felt to get the hardware and the WSOP champ title.

Clayton ‘SLARKDUCK’ Maguire started Day 2 with the chip lead and was very close to losing his whole stack heads-up against Bulgaria-based player Simeon Naydenov. At one point, Maguire was down to just a couple of blinds, but several all-ins helped him get back in the race and win the top prize of $210,279.

Canada and Hong Kong were the other countries represented in this year’s WSOP.com Championship final table making it clear that the online event was more or less about the world, not only about the United States and its regulated online poker market.

Besides this event, Maguire also min-cashed in this year’s Millionaire Maker event. Two years ago, he was not very far from making the final table at the WSOP Main Event finishing in 44th place. As for his online experience, the Las-Vegas based cash grinder shares the same story as most Americans. He told WSOP.com:

(Photo: WSOP.com)

Online Cash Game Traffic Soars During WSOP

Unfortunately, many Americans remain suspicious over the online poker environment and prefer not to take any chances although there is a U.S. regulated market that includes states like Nevada, New Jersey, and Delaware.

Still, the big influx of poker players from all around the U.S. and the world involved at the WSOP usually brings a spike in the online cash game traffic for the state of Nevada. It happened last year and it happened again this year as the stats show. According to PokerScout.com, the volume of cash players soared to an annual high during the WSOP, up 31% compared to the volume before the month of June. This spike however brings nothing new to the table, only greater liquidity for a short timespan. Most likely, after the Main Event reaches its final table and all the grinders leave, the traffic will be back to normal in Nevada.

Luckily, at least one fact will remain: the WSOP.com Online No Limit Holdem Championship going down in history let’s hope not only as the biggest regulated online poker tournament but more as the first seven-figure MTTs of many.