- Events during the 2014 World Series of Poker resulted in the total prize pool for the event’s history eclipsing $2 billion. The largest single-year payout of $222,035,192 in 2012 was broken in 2014, with $225,584,873 being paid out to those who cashed.
The 2014 World Series of Poker is wrapping up with the Main Event—giving us a perfect opportunity to examine some of the statistics associated with the annual marquee Las Vegas poker tournament series.
Events during the 2014 World Series of Poker resulted in the total prize pool for the event’s history eclipsing $2 billion. The largest single-year payout of $222,035,192 in 2012 was broken in 2014, with $225,584,873 being paid out to those who cashed.
Main Event
This year’s Main Event attracted 6,683 players—331 more than in 2013. Day 1C of the event set the record for the largest Main Event starting flight with 3,756 participants.
The largest Main Event in history took place in 2006, when 8,773 individuals paid the $10,000 Main Event buy-in. The record for the the largest ever Main Event championship payout was also in 2006 which was won by Jamie Gold for an even $12 million.
This year the guaranteed first place prize is $10 million, which is $1,638,430 more than last year’s Main Event bracelet cash by Ryan Riess for $8,361,570.
WSOP Bracelets
In addition to $10 million in cash, the winner of the 2014 Main event will also receive a “priceless” commemorative bracelet designed by Jason of Beverly Hills. The one of a kind bracelet was designed with “over 35 carats of white and black diamonds and weighs in at just under 300 grams of 14 karat white and yellow gold,” according to a press release issued by WSOP management.
A total of 76 WSOP bracelets will be awarded once the 2014 WSOP has concluded, which beats out last year’s total by one and will stand alone as the most Series bracelets ever awarded during a calendar year.
That is more than twice as many as in 2003, when Chris Moneymaker captured the Main Event championship—capping off a 36-bracelet year for the WSOP.
The amount of bracelets awarded in WSOP events has now increased 10 consecutive years.
Since Moving to the Rio
The WSOP officially moved to the Rio in 2005, and immediately saw an increase in both the total prize pool and number of bracelets awarded.
After the conclusion of the 2014 Main Event, 558 WSOP bracelets will have been won on the Rio property since 2005.
Monster Stack and Millionaire Maker Tournaments
The 2014 WSOP Monster Stack event broke the record for single-day, single-entry events in the Series’ history with 7,862 individuals paying the $1500 entry fee to compete for the $1,327,083 first prize.
The largest single-day event ever was also recorded this year in the Millionaire Maker tournament, which boasted 7,977 entries. The difference between the Millionaire Maker and Monster Stack tournaments is that players were allowed to re-enter in the latter.
The record for the largest field in a WSOP event stands as the 2006 Main Event attracted 8,773 players.
Worldwide Participation & Attendance
This year, a total of 107 countries were represented in the World Series of Poker according to WSOP.com Editor-in-Chief Seth Palansky.
Players from 82 countries competed in the 2014 Main Event alone.
2014 was also a record-breaking year for the WSOP with 82,360 players—3.6% over last year’s total of 79,471.
World Series of Poker Executive Director Ty Stewart told media outlets earlier this week that the Series is “humbled to have seen this kind of response to our 10th series at the Rio.”
