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General14 years ago

WSOP: A Numbers Game

In addition to the participation and prizepool records broken at the 42nd World Series of Poker through the first 29 of 58 events at the Rio All-Suites Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas are some interesting statistics about the entrants. If you want to win, it would behoove you to be younger than the field. If you want to do well, come from a closer proximity to Las Vegas; either city, state or country.

Does your age matter?
  • Average Age of Entrants: 36.17
  • Average Age of Cashers: 34.9
  • Average Age of Final Tables: 33.92
  • Average Age of Winners: 28.82

Is Proximity to Las Vegas a factor?

Top 5 States to cash
1. Nevada - 424 cashes for $6,868,162
2. California - 408 cashes for $5,649,640
3. Florida - 178 cashes for $2,824,387
4. Texas - 155 cashes for $2,908,179
5. New York - 148 for $3,913,078

Other observations from the first half numbers:
  • Playing the most events doesn't necessarily mean you will cash the most (i.e. Tom Dwan, Shannon Shorr, Justin Smith, Michael Mizrachi, Sorel Mizzi, Steven Kelly, Jason Mercier and Dan Heimiller having all played between 20-26 events each) while none of them are in the top stats of money won or events cashed.
  • Women are at a disadvantage making up 3.2% of the field, but only 1% of final tablist (i.e four final table appearances with two second place finishes) but are well below the expected $1.68 million that they would be expected to earn from the $52,506,260 awarded in the first 29 events.
  • Come from a English speaking country( U.S., Canada, and UK) - winning 30 of 34 bracelets (*updated stat from first 29 events).
  • U.S., Canada, and UK have 3,653 cashes out of 4,117 total. (*updated stat from first 29 events)
  • U.S., Canada, and UK have won 57,161,363 out of $66,402,143 total. (*updated stat from first 29 events)
  • 28 of 29 Bracelet winners have been first time winners (John Juanda was the lone exception).
  • Just because you don't win a bracelet doesn't mean you can't be WSOP Player of the Year (e.g Phil Hellmuth leads presently with two second place finishes in non NLHE $10k Championship events)


It will be interesting to see if the second half of the WSOP upholds these numbers or trends in a different direction.

Source for all stats - WSOP.com