I sparred a bit on Twitter with @TurboPokerOnlin about his belief that record fields in WSOP 1k\’s would be a \”major\” story … and eventually conceded that it might-would probably come in at #9. (NOTE to self: Do a \”WSOP Top Ten Stories\” post.)
But what I didn\’t expect as a top story that now is .. the non-bracelet daily \”deepstacks\” at the Rio — specifically the $235 2pm event. Say what you will about the value in playing in a tournament with 20 percent rake … this event has more people talking about it, multiple times a week, every week, consistently, probably moreso than any other at the WSOP. It started off with a few hundred players each day (nice), and soon began drawing more than 600 (kinda wow) … and then 800 (for sure wow) and then just a few days ago (OMG!) 1,100 — a record field size for such a non-bracelet event at the WSOP. The suits, we can suspect, are practically speechlessly giddy.
There\’s an old axiom in poker room operations that \”action breeds action.\” To some extent, the whole World Series is testament to the concept … and these Venetian Deep Stacks Knockoffs show it in microcosm. No wonder Caesars eventually began catering to \”smaller\” customers wanting a low-cost taste of the WSOP while playing for more than just satellite tokens.
When all is said and done, more than a football stadium worth of people will have dropped a couple hundred bucks into mini-WSOP events that are becoming less and less mini … whether that be in spite of, or because of, all the similar such tourneys — Venetian Deep Stacks, Caesars Palace MegaStacks, the Golden Nugget Grand Series, Binion\’s Somethingorother Classic, the WynnSOP Whatever … I think I\’m even missing a few others — that came before what\’s currently going on at the Rio.
