It was expected that the attendance at the 2011 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas would be down because of Black Friday but so far the early numbers are up. Poker pros from all over the world have been entering the early events of the 2011 WSOP and attendance figures are up from last year.
In past years, many of the players at the World Series of Poker qualified through online poker satellite tournaments. There are not as many online qualifiers this year but so far it hasn’t mattered as players are showing up in droves.
In the first nine events of the 2011 World Series of Poker, six of them had attendance higher than last year. That is amazing considering last year the WSOP set an attendance record with almost 73,000 players. Last year’s prize pool topped $187 million. This year’s numbers are on pace to actually break that number although it should be pointed out that the main event is almost assuredly going to have fewer players this year so the overall prize pool money will likely be down.
Poker pros started well at the 2011 WSOP notching several wins including Eugene Katchalov winning the $1,500 Stud tournament. Other early winners at the World Series of Poker were Sean Drake, Jake Cody, Cheech Barbaro, Allen Bari, Harrison Wilder, Amir Lehavot, Sean Getziller and Matt Perrins.