For months, the 2015 WSOP has been seen as having the potential to be a historic undertaking, thanks mostly to tie-ins between the live World Series of Poker tournament and WSOP.com online poker rooms in Nevada and New Jersey. This year will see the first-ever online poker bracelet awarded at the Rio in Las Vegas.
But, nearly two weeks into the premier poker event of the year, tongues are still wagging about the WSOP Event #5, the Colossus, which brought out so many casual poker players that tables had to be set up in the kitchen and wherever else space could be found.
Let’s have a look at some of the numbers to come out of the event that may well define this year’s World Series of Poker.
22,374
That’s right – a whopping 22,374 entrants turned out for the Colossus. This is the largest number of participants in any live poker tournament ever.
The 2006 WSOP Main Event is the next closest in line – that year 8,773 players showed up to play the Main Event.
For comparison:
In 1950, the population of the entire city of Las Vegas was just slightly bigger at 24,624.
- 22,000 is around the same number of people who ran the 2015 Los Angeles Marathon.
- Las Vegas Strip performer Criss Angel’s home measures 22,000 square feet, according to trusted Vegas news source Robin Leach.
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$11,187,000
- That’s how much the Colossus prize pool was, which makes it the most sizable in history for an event with a buy-in less than $5,000.
- What else could you buy for $11,187,000?
- For around $11 million, you could own the Henry Graves Super Complication Pocket Watch by Patek Phillipe.
- If watches aren’t your thing, you could have purchased a mansion owned by Kanye West and Kim Kardashian, which also went for around $11 million.
- More of a car person? How about a rare 1960 Ferrari California? It was sold at auction in the neighborhood of $11 million.
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Some other numbers to chew on
- Expressing awe at the staggering success of the Colossus, WSOP Executive Director Ty Stewart said, “We love to bring poker enthusiasts together and help build positive momentum for the game. I also want to acknowledge the thousands of Event Staff and volunteers who rallied together to make this weekend possible.”
- Here are a more few numbers to ponder:
$565: The rather affordable buy-in cost for the Colossus.
2,241: Number of players to cash in the Colossus (previous record was the 2006 Main Event).
5,000: This is how many poker chips each player had at the start.
335,610: Total number of poker chips required at the beginning of the Colossus.
4,480: Decks of cards needed for the Colossus.
982: That’s how many dealers it took to deal all those cards.
46: While this number might seem small compared to the others, this is how many years the WSOP has been running. It got its start back in 1970, well before many of the players who showed up to the Colossus were even born.
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