ShareFor most poker fans it’s a bucket list item but for one lucky player it could be a lifetime opportunity – the chance to win a World Series of Poker Main Event seat for the next 30 years!
That figure of 8,773 was the number of entries in 2006, the height of the first poker boom and the year Jamie Gold took, well, gold! And the small matter of $12,000,000, but who’s counting?
Seventeen-years-on and that record-breaking entry, and first prize, still hasn’t been topped, but if this year’s Main Event pulls in more players, then one lucky punter who plays it is set to bag the prize of a lifetime, almost literally.
The $10,000 ME seat is a drop in the ocean for the big-name pros, but for the other 99.9% of us it’s a dream, the chance to “do a Moneymaker” or follow the likes of legendary names such as Johnny Moss, Johnny Chan, and the recently-departed Doyle Brunson, who each won two Main Events back-to-back.
With thirty opportunities – barring an untimely, and in the circumstances highly unfortunate, demise – you’d expect that even the worst poker player might somehow find a cash at least, and that’s worth a brag itself.
Poker Twitter was all over the big news of a $300,000 ME seat giveaway, although the poker player’s three-letter swear word reared its ugly head in the very first response...
Other responses were the usual mix of positive and negative, ranging from the hopeful:
“Now I just have to win this Main Event Satty tonight!”
...to the promising...
“Super cool… hope to break the record this year, I’ll be there.”
...to the potentially bitter...
"Hopefully some multi-millionaire doesn't win this the same way one won the Milly in the mystery bounty last year..."
That last one was in reference to Matt Glantz pulling the $1million Bounty, a yell heard all around the WSOP...
The Main Event last year was won by Espen Jorstad, and for a while it looked as though the numbers were going to crack the 2006 record, but eventually fell just short, at 8663 the second biggest ME ever.
Will 2023 be the year to top them all? Daniel Negreanu thinks so!
This year’s Main Event kicks off on Monday July 3rd and will crown its new king or queen on July 17th, with the total number of entries expected to be known sometime on the evening of Saturday July 8th.
The Top 5 Biggest WSOP Main Events
- 2006 8773 Jamie Gold $12,000,000
- 2022 8663 Espen Jorstad $10,000,000
- 2019 8,569 Hossein Ensan $10,000,000
- 2018 7,874 John Cynn $8,800,000
- 2010 7,319 Jonathan Duhamel $8,900,000
