Another World Series of Poker (WSOP) in Las Vegas has come to a close with all but one of the 69 bracelets awarded. Nine players remain in the WSOP Main Event and they will return October 30 to determine the 2016 World Champion.

With the busiest schedule yet, the WSOP reached a new record number of entries in the series’ 47-year history. There were a total of 107,833 entries across the 69 events that ran from May 31 to July 19 and a total of $221,211,336 in prizes was paid to players.

There were players from 107 different countries including, of course, our Canadian contingent who made the trip south to play in the world’s biggest poker series. As usual, Canadians made up the second-largest portion of the field behind the dominating host nation. There were 4,586 Canadian entries this year which was, as predicted before the series began, a drop from last year.

Since then, the WSOP has continued to grow massively every year, culminating in 2013 with the highest overall attendance, number of events and total prize pool in the history of the WSOP. In the 2013 WSOP, players from a 106 different nations took part, having a total of 79,471 entries and a combined prize pool of $197,041,468 spread over 62 events. The total field of 6,358 players fell short of last year's record attendance of 8,773, but it's still easily the second largest WSOP tournament ever held. The nearly $60 million prize pool will pay 621 spots. The 2019 World Series of Poker is now in the history books. On Tuesday night, July 16, the last of the tournaments awarded bracelets to their respective winners, making a total of 90 WSOP champions for the summer. One of those events, however, was the shining star of the series, as usual. The $10K No Limit Hold’em World Championship was also known as Event 73 but more commonly as the WSOP.

There was one WSOP bracelet won by a Canadian this year. Kristen Bicknell won Event #46: $1,500 Bounty No-Limit Hold’em for $290,768. This was her second WSOP bracelet after winning the Ladies Event in 2013. Her victory marked the first bracelet awarded to a woman this summer. She also became the only Canadian woman to win a second bracelet, and the only Canadian woman to win an open WSOP event.

There is still one more Canadian hope for a bracelet — the biggest one of all. Griffin Benger has found a seat at the WSOP Main Event final table and is guaranteed at least $1 million for making it that far. But he’ll have his sights set on the title of World Champion which comes with $8 million and the final WSOP bracelet of the summer.

Canadian WSOP Attendance

Despite the growth of the WSOP in both the number of events and the number of players, Canadian attendance is on a downward trend. This could be due to the current poor state of the Canadian dollar or the continued frustration for the tax deduction on prize money or the increased number of top-quality Canadian and European poker series that Canadians would rather play.

In other statistics, the average field size for WSOP events reached an all-time high of 1,563. The average age of players was 41 and female players made up just over five percent of tournament entries. There were three players who won two bracelets this summer: Jason Mercier, Benny Glaser, and Ian Johns all found victory twice.

The Main Event received 6,737 entries which was a five percent increase over last year. And Day 1c of the Main Event was the largest Main Event starting flight ever, receiving 4,240 entries in a single day.

The final Canadian hope of the summer is on Griffin Benger who will return to the felt on the big stage under the bright lights on October 30 to try to become the 2016 WSOP World Champion as the action is broadcast live around the world on ESPN across three nights.

_{Details and photo courtesy of WSOP.}

Get all the latest PokerNews Canada updates on social media. Follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook!

• Tags

  World Series of Poker2016 WSOPKristen BicknellGriffen Benger

• Related Room

  888poker

• Related Tournaments

  World Series of Poker

• Related Players

  Kristen Bicknell

The third week of tournaments is in the books at the 2011 World Series of Poker at the Rio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas and attendance continues to increase over last summer in both the cash games and tournaments. Eleven attendance records have fallen at the Rio according to official World Series statistics.

“We are humbled once again by the incredible turnout from players all over the world,” said WSOP Executive Director Ty Stewart. “It has been a record-setting summer thus far in 2011 and we are confident it will continue through the duration of the tournament.” In addition to the official WSOP gold bracelet events, all other poker-related business is experiencing tremendous double-digit growth as well.

WSOP side action, which refers to all non-bracelet events – including cash games, single-table-satellites, mega-satellites and daily deepstack tournaments – are up 45 percent year-over-year. Cash games have attracted non-stop action featuring 96 live poker tables filled to capacity. The cash games offered ranges from $1-$2 blinds all the way up to high-stakes competition, including no-limit with blinds at $1,000/$2,000. Pot-limit Omaha, a game of growing popularity is generating more than 20 tables spread at a time. This makes for arguably the greatest concentration of pot-limit Omaha action anywhere in history.

Tournament Director Jack Effel explained, “It is one thing to plan and prepare to accommodate such a large number of people on a daily basis, but it is truly an amazing feeling to see it all unfold in front of your eyes like we have witnessed at the WSOP in 2011. We are grateful for everyone’s patience throughout and want to thank the players who have showed up thus far. We look forward to welcoming still more players who are still yet to make their 2011 WSOP debut.” On Friday, June 18, the WSOP sat 5,946 players for the various poker tournaments scheduled that day – the largest number of players ever entered on a single day in live poker history.

Below is a look at the records that have been broken, as well as the gainers and losers so far from the bracelet events. Read on below to also see how the bracelet winners from the first two weeks of the summer stack up.

Eleven WSOP tournament records have been broken. They are:

- Biggest Heads-Up tournament prize pool in history ($3,040,000) – Event #2

- Largest live Omaha High-Low Split Tournament in history (925 entries) – Event #3

- Largest live Six-Handed tournament in poker history (1,920 entries) – Event #10

- Biggest Deuce-to-Seven tournament prize pool in history ($1,184,400) – Event #16

- Largest live $1,500 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em tournament in history with single day start (3,157 entries) – Event #18

- Largest live $1,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em tournament in history with single day start (3,175 entries) – Event #20

- Largest consecutive-days starting field sizes in poker history (combined 6,332 entries) – Event #18 and Event #20

- Largest live Pot-Limit Omaha tournament in poker history (1,071 entries) – Event #22

- Largest Mixed-Game (Eight-Game Mix) in poker history (489 entries) – Event #23

- Largest Seniors poker tournament in history (3,752 entries) – Event #30

- Largest live $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em tournament in history with single day start – Event #30 (breaks record established in Event #20)

Attendance Rises in 7 Events, and Falls in 4 During Week 3

The trend of growth continues to stay pretty close to across the board as the 2011 WSOP passes the halfway point. Any events that shrunk during week 3 were small, while the growth numbers were robust. The $1,500 pot-limit Omaha event (21 percent increase), the $1,500 no-limit hold’em event (19.5 percent increase), and the $1,000 seniors no-limit hold’em championship (19.4 percent increase) in particular posted strong growth numbers that represent hundreds of new players passing through the Rio over last year.

The attendance figures at the 2011 WSOP will continue to be closely watched this summer as a barometer for the poker world post-Black Friday, and you can get a look at those numbers each week here at CardPlayer.com.

Event No. 22 ($1,500 pot-limit Omaha) – 1,071 players 2010 – 885 players (21 percent increase)

Event No. 23 ($2,500 eight-game mixed) – 489 players 2010 – 452 players (8.2 percent increase)

Event No. 24 ($5,000 no-limit hold’em shootout) – 387 players 2010 – 358 players (8.1 percent increase)

Event No. 25 ($1,500 seven-card stud eight-or-better) – 606 players 2010 – 644 players (6.3 percent decline)

Event No. 26 ($2,500 six-handed no-limit hold’em) – 1,378 players 2010 – 1,245 players (10.7 percent increase)

Event No. 27 ($10,000 limit hold’em championship) – 152 players 2010 – 171 players (12.5 percent decline)

Event No. 28 ($1,500 no-limit hold’em) – 2,500 players 2010 – 2,092 players (19.5 percent increase)

Event No. 29 ($2,500 six-handed 10-game mixed) – 431 players 2010 – This is a new event for 2011.

Wsop History

Event No. 30 ($1,000 seniors no-limit hold’em) – 3,752 players 2010 – 3,142 players (19.4 percent increase)

Event No. 31 ($3,000 pot-limit Omaha) – 685 players 2010 – This is a new event for 2011.

Event No. 32 ($1,500 no-limit hold’em) – 2,828 players 2010 – 2,563 players (10.3 percent increase)

Event No. 33 ($10,000 seven-card stud eight-or-better championship) – 168 players 2010 – 170 players (1.2 percent decline)

Event No. 34 ($1,000 no-limit hold’em) – 3,144 players 2010 – 3,289 players (4.4 percent decline)

Event No. 35 ($5,000 six-handed pot-limit Omaha) – 507 players 2010 – This is a new event for 2011.

NOTE: Official statistics provided by WSOP.com.

Through the conclusion of Event #33, the 2011 WSOP has attracted 41,454 combined total entries. $64,138,560 in prize money has been awarded to winners.

Through the conclusion of this tournament, the breakdown of nationality of gold bracelet winners has been:

United States (22)
Canada (4)
Great Britain (3)
France (2)
Russia (1)
Ukraine (1)

Through the conclusion of this tournament, the national origin (birthplace) of winners has been:

United States (17)
Canada (4)
Great Britain (3)
France (2)
Ukraine (2)
Israel (1)
Russia (1)
Honduras (1)
Indonesia (1)
Germany (1)

Through the conclusion of this event, the home-states of (American) winners have been:

California (5)
Nevada (3)
New York (3)
Texas (2)
Illinois (2)
New Jersey (1)
Florida (1)
Tennessee (1)
Connecticut (1)
Indiana (1)
Maryland (1)
Virginia (1)

Through the conclusion of this tournament, the breakdown of professional poker players to semi-pros and amateurs who won gold bracelets has been:

Professional Players (24): Jake Cody, Cheech Barbaro, Eugene Katchalov, Allen Bari, Harrison Wilder, Matt Perrins, Sean Getzwiller,
Viacheslav Zhukov, David Diaz, Andrew Badecker, Tyler Bonkowski, Brian Rast, John Juanda, Aaron Steury, Darren Woods, Jason Somerville,
Bertrand Grospellier, John Monnette, Mark Radoja, Chris Viox, Dan Idema, Andy Frankenberger, Chris Lee, Sam Stein

Semi-Pros (4): Sean R. Drake, Amir Lehavot, Oleksii Kovalchuk, Eric Rodawig

Amateurs (4): Geffrey Klein, Foster Hays, James Hess, Kirk Caldwell

Wsop Attendance History