WSOPE Tournaments Should Not Be Bracelet Events

2012 WSOP BraceletIf a World Poker Tour (WPT) or European Poker Tour (EPT) tournament were to put up the numbers that the World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) has over the years we would call the tournament :an important stop” or “popular.” Essentially, we would treat it as a pretty big tournament series, but not on par with the WSOP, or even the Aussie Millions or PCA.

The problem is the WSOPE is different than the typical EPT or WPT stop (or at least should be), in that each tournament boasts a legitimate WSOP gold bracelet, so we expect it to be something special. But the WSOPE has been anything but special, and in my opinion there is no reason for any of the preliminary tournaments to be bracelet events –I’m ok with the Main Event of the WSOPE keeping its bracelet status.

So why has the WSOPE gotten such a pass over the years, and why do I think the tournament series is more hype than substance? Let me give you my reasons below.

The media has been tricked into believing the WSOPE is a “Big F’ing Deal”

I’m as guilty as anyone when it comes to this, as I write the articles about how big a deal the WSOPE is: “The WSOPE schedule has been announced!” “So and so is the Day 1 chip-leader in Event #3 at the WSOPE!”

Unfortunately these are all non-stories, but the hype that surrounds the WSOPE has made media types overvalue the importance of anything to do with the WSOPE, and I suspect the reason for this originates with the first WSOPE in 2007 when Annette Obrestad gave us such a big story, and brought many hits to poker news websites.

The “Obrestad Effect” continued for a couple years, with more big names winning and making deep runs, but it was all a sham as you’ll see in the next header, and it appears that poker fans have caught on to the sham faster than the media.

Players want it to matter because it produces small field bracelet tournaments

WSOP bracelets are, for whatever reason, the measuring stick used by poker pundits and players of success. And the WSOPE tricked us all into thinking that poker’s biggest stars were crushing it over in London, and later in Cannes.

But the fields for WSOPE events are so pro-heavy that it’s more of a story if a well-known player doesn’t win a bracelet at the WSOPE. The pros love these tournaments because they can pad their stats, so to speak. They can play WSOP qualified events with a quarter of the usual entries.

So the pros not only make final tables and win more often, but it’s also in their best interest to hype up the WSOPE and its importance.

These are not WSOP caliber numbers

When I see a PLO tournament that is handing out a $70,000 first-place prize I don’t think “WSOP bracelet,” I think Unibet Poker Open or side event at the EPT San Remo. But these are the types of numbers the WSOPE tournaments routinely pull in.

Look no further than this year’s tournaments:

* Event #1: €1,100 Ladies Championship – 65 entries –first place €21,850

* Event #2: €1,100 NLHE Reentry – 659 entries – first place €129,700

* Event #3: €5,300 Holdem Mix Max – 135 entries – first place €188,360

* Event #4: €1,650 PLO – 184 entries – first place €70,324

For comparisons sake, a $1,000 (or a $1,500) NLHE tournament at the WSOP in Las Vegas will pull-in anywhere from 2,500 to 4,000 players and has a first-place prize in the $600k-$1 million range, not 650 players and $150k. The only WSOP tournaments that have first place prizes around $100k are the obscure variants like No Limit 2-7.

Conclusion

So what is the problem? Basically the WSOPE has a casual player issue. The tournaments aren’t prestigious enough, and the WSOPE is not enough of a “destination event” to pull in casual players from around the globe like the WSOP in Las Vegas; yet at the same time the buy-ins are too high for the local players and semi-pros to participate in any kind of serious numbers –like you see for Heartland Poker Tour, UKIPT, GUKPT, or WSOPC tournaments.

Because of this, I really can’t see what the justification is for keeping the WSOPE preliminary tournaments as bracelet events. Here is how deep my feeling for this runs: I don’t feel $1,000 and $1,500 buy-in events at the WSOP in Vegas should be bracelet events either, but they are far more worthy of awarding a WSOP bracelet than any WSOPE tournament outside of the Main Event.

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