Mo’ Money for WSOP November Nine Eight
Interest Added to Top Eight Payout Spots
The delay of the WSOP main event final table allowed Harrah’s to invest the final table prize money, with the exception of $900,670 paid to each player in July, in a money market account to accumulate interest in the months leading up to the final table action. That was an excellent idea…until the market tanked. Minor detail.
Regardless, there is now an extra $98,179 added to the payouts. Harrah’s invested the $24,527,416 into a Fidelity Institutional Money Market Fund – Treasury Only Portfolio on July 14th and withdrew it on November 5th. With a variable rate returning .9%, there is now a little extra spending money in the pool for the top eight finishers. The guy who finishes in ninth place gets nothing more – nada, zippo, not even a few bucks for the valet – than the $900,670 he already won. The new payouts for the final table are as follows:
1st place: $9,152,416 ($32,899 added)
2nd place: $5,809,595 ($19,571 added)
3rd place: $4,517,773 ($14,421 added)
4th place: $3,774,974 ($11,459 added)
5th place: $3,096,768 ($8,756 added)
6th place: $2,418,562 ($6,052 added)
7th place: $1,772,650 ($3,476 added)
8th place: $1,288,217 ($1,545 added)
9th place: $900,670
This brings the updated total main event prize pool to $64,431,779.
Kevin Mathers says:
November 8th, 2008 at 6:55pm
I guess making less than $1k/day is better than losing $24m.
DanM says:
November 8th, 2008 at 7:32pm
Seriously, considering the market’s volatility over the past 4+ months, they’re kinda lucky all the original cash is still there!
DanM says:
November 8th, 2008 at 7:35pm
***The guy who finishes in ninth place gets nothing more – nada, zippo, not even a few bucks for the vale***
That is kinda funny that one of these players will have been sweating for the past 4 months, already paid, only to ultimately go home without an extra penny for his November Nineage (online poker patch deal not included).
Kevin Mathers says:
November 8th, 2008 at 8:01pm
I’m sure Kelly Kim was seduced by the millions of mainstream sponsorship dollars that were supposed to be coming to him as part of the Nov. 9.
Lou Krieger spelled it out pretty well in his blog on how the November Nine were seduced, abandoned and forgotten.
Mean Gene says:
November 9th, 2008 at 8:06am
Why on Earth would they invest the money in a VARIABLE-rate fund? That makes absolutely no sense. You have $25 million, you want to park it somewhere for four months, you shop around and get the best fixed rate you’re offered. You don’t want to be checking the account every day to if the rate’s changed. You wanna park the funds in a safe place and know that when you come back four months later you’re gonna have “x” more dollars waiting.
This was even a great opportunity for…wait for it…corporate advertising! Harrah’s could give the financial institution a little juice during the broadcast by announcing the interest earned and WHERE it was earned, while the bank could say something like, “Sometimes even the best poker players in the world don’t want to gamble with their money. That’s why they come to us, Fidelity Investments…”
DanM says:
November 9th, 2008 at 8:21am
Brilliant.
Kevin Mathers says:
November 9th, 2008 at 8:35am
Excellent points Gene, you’d have thought they would want people to know where $24m of the players’ money was being kept. Especially with all the talk of getting mainstream sponsorship that this the delay would get.
DanM says:
November 9th, 2008 at 9:55am
Gene-ius.