The latest incarnation of the November Nine gets underway in a few hours, and as per usual there’ll be talk of poker’s “young guns” dominating the big-money prize spots. The old man at the table this year is Bruno Politano, topping out the field chronologically at the crotchety age of 32.
However, while all the remaining players this year may be young, they’re not exactly kids … at least not the way they were in 2010 or 2011.
Maybe it’s just semantics, but what’s different this year is the absence of any player who’s already embarked on a fifth decade of life (a requirement to be in the WSOP Poker Hall of Fame, fwiw) thereby skewing the average. Also 2014’s population of young non-rookies makes for the first year where all competitors at the final table are of an age more comparable to what you’d see in more traditional professional sports.
Here’s a look at how the average age at the WSOP main event final table has changed over the years in the November Nine era. Additional data is below.
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Sheldon Adelson turns 81 today, which makes him still just a kid according to my grandmother. We of course all know Adelson is a wealthy man, but I didn’t realize he was the richest person in Nevada (like by far). I mean sure, he woulda made my shortlist if you asked, but I didn’t really place his economic stature in context until seeing this bit of data porn showing who has the largest net worth by state.
So what do you get a man who has everything? OK, maybe Adelson doesn’t have everything, but he does have more personal wealth than the GDP of nearly 100 independent nations. He has so much money ($35.7 billion) that he could singlehandedly pay off ALL of Caesars’ debt and still have more than $12 billion left over — enough to still be the richest person in Nevada, as well as 34 other American states. Sooo … maybe just close your eyes and make a wish?
Summer poker tournaments in Las Vegas generate nearly a quarter-billion dollars worth of prize money, Pokerati data crunchers have found. (Thanks Thea in the Philippines!)
It really is about more than just the World Series. Sure the tournament brand proudly owned by Caesars Interactive may have started it all, but now you’ve got Venetian Deep Stacks, the Wynn Classic, Binion’s Classic, Aria Classic, Rio Deep Stacks, Caesars Megastacks, Bellagio Cup … the list goes on … but all are competing for players, and apparently all you need is a casino property and a poker cliche … and maybe 110-degree weather outside, and voila — tournament success awaits!
LOLs notwithstanding, to better understand the impact of live events on the poker economy, and to assess the scope of WSOP and non-WSOP summertime Vegas action, we looked at 13 different series(es?) held at 10 different casino properties from mid-May through mid July … accounting for 722 tournaments total, nearly 230,000 entries (not to be confused with number of players) … making for more than 1,000 tournament days (whoa, that’s a lotta staff somebody’s gotta manage) in just one city.
And upon looking a little deeper (scroll horizontally) we found how:
- Caesars clearly dominates across low, middle, and high stakes tournament levels — with the 312 tournaments they operate accounting for 43 percent of the action we looked at, but 88 percent of the available prize pools
- Bellagio tourneys may be in a different league of high-dollar play, but even with WPT-branded events, total prize pools under MGM Resorts’ umbrella tally a relatively paltry $10 million
- Venetian held 212 tournaments, with some 32,000 entries generating about $14 million in prize money (after raking about 14 percent)
- With an average buy-in of $185, Rio Deepstacks accounted for 70,000 tournament entries, and $12 million in prize money
- The Hollywood Poker Open was notable, but probably also an outlier; still, might this one-off just before the WSOP main event reveal a possible a soft spot in the tournament economy at the $2,500 level in late June?
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Spoiler alert: If you’re into bar trivia with poker players and/or students of transcontinental nomenclature , you might wanna close your eyes and squint with your hand covering the bottom part of the screen … because this post, just a few lines down, will reveal the answer to a rather fascinating list type of question, if not officially establish who is truly the First Family (Extended) of Poker:
What’s the winningest surname in poker?
A kind lady or gent at the Hendon Mob pressed a few buttons to confirm some of our guesses (and maybe yours, too) while revealing perhaps a few surprise names … and creating a list that, frankly, shows why making the November/October Nine really does matter moreso than pretty much any other final table in poker — even if your last name isn’t Heinz, Yang, Eastgate, or Staszko.
Most Winningest Last Names in the Database
| # |
Last Name |
Number of Players |
Total Winnings |
| 1st |
Nguyen |
724 |
$58,486,178 |
| 2nd |
Tran |
351 |
$32,706,817 |
| 3rd |
Smith |
838 |
$32,665,771 |
| 4th |
Esfandiari |
1 |
$23,245,828 |
| 5th |
Lee |
605 |
$21,622,437 |
| 6th |
Le |
240 |
$21,112,311 |
| 7th |
Mizrachi |
8 |
$18,624,760 |
| 8th |
Hansen |
116 |
$18,241,708 |
| 9th |
Williams |
394 |
$17,857,169 |
| 10th |
Seidel |
9 |
$17,009,914 |
| 11th |
Kim |
386 |
$16,961,577 |
| 12th |
Ivey |
10 |
$16,773,558 |
| 13th |
Trickett |
3 |
$16,474,737 |
| 14th |
Negreanu |
1 |
$16,199,968 |
| 15th |
Hellmuth |
2 |
$16,129,852 |
| 16th |
Pham |
165 |
$15,546,374 |
| 17th |
Chan |
161 |
$13,091,677 |
| 18th |
Phillips |
156 |
$13,065,410 |
| 19th |
Gold |
45 |
$13,028,974 |
| 20th |
Phan |
100 |
$12,479,193 |
| 21st |
Juanda |
1 |
$12,419,828 |
| 22nd |
Hachem |
5 |
$12,405,442 |
| 23rd |
Brown |
442 |
$12,310,085 |
| 24th |
Schwartz |
102 |
$12,246,152 |
| 25th |
Johnson |
480 |
$12,067,495 |
| 26th |
Cunningham |
69 |
$11,907,403 |
| 27th |
Mortensen |
17 |
$11,570,325 |
| 28th |
Eastgate |
1 |
$11,127,554 |
| 29th |
Cloutier |
8 |
$11,046,507 |
| 30th |
Duhamel |
2 |
$11,033,291 |
| 31st |
Wong |
228 |
$10,324,102 |
| 32nd |
Miller |
400 |
$10,281,188 |
| 33rd |
Grospellier |
1 |
$10,024,924 |
| 34th |
Brunson |
6 |
$9,862,132 |
| 35th |
Deeb |
6 |
$9,802,789 |
| 36th |
Cohen |
200 |
$9,744,700 |
| 37th |
Cada |
1 |
$9,312,211 |
| 38th |
Mercier |
16 |
$9,185,378 |
| 39th |
Binger |
2 |
$9,151,708 |
| 40th |
Jones |
402 |
$9,116,285 |
| 41st |
Chen |
170 |
$9,101,035 |
| 42nd |
Ferguson |
54 |
$8,952,334 |
| 43rd |
Heinz |
2 |
$8,895,549 |
| 44th |
Yang |
76 |
$8,833,236 |
| 45th |
Martin |
294 |
$8,778,894 |
| 46th |
Lindgren |
13 |
$8,754,310 |
| 47th |
Young |
213 |
$8,344,999 |
| 48th |
Brenes |
7 |
$8,324,683 |
| 49th |
Shulman |
9 |
$8,209,621 |
| 50th |
Matusow |
4 |
$7,995,344 |
| 51st |
Wasicka |
2 |
$7,848,665 |
| 52nd |
Liu |
133 |
$7,839,421 |
| 53rd |
Greenstein |
4 |
$7,824,081 |
| 54th |
Davis |
317 |
$7,785,865 |
| 55th |
Hall |
186 |
$7,744,133 |
| 56th |
Chiu |
18 |
$7,624,502 |
| 57th |
Fox |
101 |
$7,590,048 |
| 58th |
Moore |
194 |
$7,471,896 |
| 59th |
Racener |
1 |
$7,399,133 |
| 60th |
Harrington |
39 |
$7,385,910 |
| 61st |
Baker |
176 |
$7,272,881 |
| 62nd |
Seed |
1 |
$7,271,232 |
| 63rd |
Katchalov |
1 |
$7,162,776 |
| 64th |
Raymer |
3 |
$7,018,909 |
| 65th |
Forrest |
15 |
$6,971,049 |
| 66th |
Clark |
199 |
$6,897,689 |
| 67th |
Kelly |
137 |
$6,872,539 |
| 68th |
Lamb |
33 |
$6,859,875 |
| 69th |
Demidov |
3 |
$6,821,514 |
| 70th |
Baldwin |
40 |
$6,789,092 |
| 71st |
Jensen |
101 |
$6,657,411 |
| 72nd |
Lederer |
5 |
$6,585,143 |
| 73rd |
Carter |
114 |
$6,565,006 |
| 74th |
Griffin |
52 |
$6,557,616 |
| 75th |
Lam |
102 |
$6,552,448 |
| 76th |
Habib |
13 |
$6,497,663 |
| 77th |
McDonald |
106 |
$6,450,391 |
| 78th |
Perry |
97 |
$6,437,309 |
| 79th |
Keller |
46 |
$6,367,012 |
| 80th |
Sexton |
28 |
$6,341,341 |
| 81st |
Wilson |
283 |
$6,297,913 |
| 82nd |
Benyamine |
2 |
$6,251,579 |
| 83rd |
Ma |
50 |
$6,127,353 |
| 84th |
Levy |
96 |
$6,100,933 |
| 85th |
Roberts |
161 |
$6,086,072 |
| 86th |
Arieh |
2 |
$6,066,192 |
| 87th |
Taylor |
297 |
$6,056,132 |
| 88th |
Cheong |
14 |
$6,049,682 |
| 89th |
Ulliott |
1 |
$6,011,126 |
| 90th |
Gordon |
95 |
$6,002,862 |
| 91st |
King |
175 |
$5,867,201 |
| 92nd |
Schulman |
11 |
$5,859,777 |
| 93rd |
Liebert |
3 |
$5,849,630 |
| 94th |
Corkins |
2 |
$5,820,670 |
| 95th |
Rheem |
1 |
$5,819,766 |
| 96th |
Ly |
79 |
$5,669,412 |
| 97th |
Khan |
62 |
$5,650,851 |
| 98th |
Thomas |
240 |
$5,649,017 |
| 99th |
Staszko |
1 |
$5,589,365 |
| 100th |
Scott |
150 |
$5,568,693 |
Through 39 41 events, the California vs. Nevada race for WSOP supremacy gets tighter … I’m already foreseeing a demand for a recount … because with Shannon Shorr alone booking one final table for Las Vegas and another under the flag of Alabama, LV is due for either some addition or subtraction. Not to mention David Benyamine, who is either from France, Las Vegas, or the Weebles Treehouse.
Interestingly enough, Cali and NV are the only two states/countries to have moneyed in every single event. Florida has at least one money finisher in every event except one — #22, the $5,000 7-Stud Hi-Lo World Championship.
UPDATE: Now two — no Floridians cashed in #40, $2,500 2-7 Limit Lowball Triple-Draw. Ha ha.
My beloved Texas has cashed in all but seven events, and remains the only self-acclaimed poker powerhouse yet to book a bracelet.
Newcomers on the WSOP World Poker Leaderboard:
Vermont
Peru
Yukon Territory
Poland (woot!)
Panama
Have a look below or see the full, regularly updated list here.
Who would’ve guessed
Guatemala would have nearly twice the money finishings of the always pokerfied
Costa Rica?
