$50k HORSE Field Takes Bigger-Than-Expected Hit

< 100

Wow, I took the under … but this is so under I\’m not even sure I still win: 95 players in $50k HORSE, compared with 148 the year before, 148 the year before that, and 143 the year before that.

Had there not been a delayed start, the number mighta been closer to 50.

All this on a Day when the WSOP decided to take a risk and play the Sex Pistols version of God Save the Queen in lieu of the British national anthem, which some thought was great, others thought was terrible, and in the end had @WSOPsuits apologizing. (All I can say is yikes, rough day, know how that goes …)

I suspect there\’ll be a lot of buzz and analysis over the HORSE field for a some time to come … after all, though not the first event with a decline in entry numbers, it is the most noticeable … resulting in a $2million drop in prize pool and a six-figure hit in the take for WSOP tourney staff.

Hey, bottom line, $50k is harder to come by these days — way more harder than in 2008, and presumably even harder than in early June 2009. But is it the money, or is it the lack of ESPN coverage?

NOTE: More than 25 percent of $50k HORSE players are members of Team Full Tilt. That doesn\’t mean FTP ponied up their buy-ins (directly) … but it does say something. Particularly since many of these players were some of the last to buy in, after the entry period would have ended were it not for the cards-in-the-air delay.

Bailout?