2007 WSOP Preview: Harrah’s in Control
The poker world has been in a state of flux ever since the UIGEA (Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act) was signed into law late last year. The poker boom may or may not be over, but our industry is definitely in a recession. After 36 straight years of growth, everyone expects the WSOP Main Event to have fewer entrants than it did the year before.
With only two months before Event #1 begins, I plan to write a series of online articles that analyze some issues facing this year’s World Series of Poker. This first one focuses on the preparations and changes made by Harrah’s and WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack.
HARRAH’S WSOP MEDIA CONFERENCE CALL
On March 14th, Harrah’s held a conference call for members of the media to receive an official update and ask questions about the upcoming Series. Pollack took the lead in answering questions, supported by Howard Greenbaum (Head of Tournament Operations), Gary Thompson (Director of Communications), Jack Effel (WSOP Tournament Director), and Ty Stewart (Director of Sponsorship and Licensing).
Dan Michalski posted a play-by-play of the call at Pokerati, along with the full audio of the call in MP3 format. (Props to Dan for providing original source material.) You should also check out the PokerNews article by poker sleuths Amy Calistri and Tim Lavalli. I’m going to dig a little deeper and analyze some of the changes, both big and small.
POLLACK’S DEFINITION OF SUCCESS
The first question on the media conference call was about defining what makes a successful WSOP if the pure numbers are lower than last year. (In past years, the numbers were often trumpeted with big headlines as proof that it had been a great tournament.)
Jeffrey Pollack: “If you’re in the global sports and entertainment business, and you’re on a network like ESPN ... there are a couple of truths. One is that ratings will come and go, and the other is that attendance will come and go.
“We are always planning for a better tournament than the year prior. We hope that that will mean bigger, but it may not ... Success, to answer your question, is measured by the quality of the experience. And we are planning for a better tournament this year than we had last year.”
Pollack has made similar comments since he arrived in late 2005, and the evidence shows that it’s not just marketing speak or spin.
KEY NUMBERS FOR THE MAIN EVENT
The AP reporter was focused on two things during the conference call — how many players were expected for the Main Event, and the estimated first prize. Pollack refused to give any predictions, but Howard Greenbaum let slip that internal planning used a high-end model of 10,000 players. (By comparison, they originally planned for 8,000 players in 2006, and easily accommodated all 8,773 who showed up to play.)
The mainstream media ran their stories with the 10,000 number listed as a cap or a prediction — it’s neither. For a look at how the mainstream media messed up the facts, check out this post by the Poker Shrink.
Nobody knows how many people will show up for the Main Event this year, because the situation has drastically changed due to the UIGEA. While nobody expects a field close to the 8,773 players that showed up in 2006, the Main Event should easily attract more than the 2,576 players that showed up in 2004. Likewise, first prize will certainly be more than Greg Raymer’s $5 million, but less than Jamie Gold’s $12 million.
That leaves 2005, when 5,619 players entered the Main Event, and Joe Hachem earned $7.5 million. Those are the numbers that Harrah’s needs to reach, because if they come in any lower, it would represent a two-year decline rather than a single year.
While Harrah’s can’t control the number of players (and many people predict it will be less than 5,600), they do have some flexibility in the prize distribution. Here’s a quick look at some past WSOP Main Event champions (including the four most recent), and how much their prize represented as a percentage of the total prizepool. (These percentages do not take into account the small cut for tournament staff, but they are close enough for our purposes here.)
1971-1977 = 100% (winner take all, up to $340,000)
1978 = 50.0% (Bobby Baldwin won $210,000)
1981 = 50.0% (Stu Ungar won $375,000)
1989 = 42.4% (Phil Hellmuth won $755,000)
1995 = 36.6% (Dan Harrington won $1 million)
1997 = 32.1% (Stu Ungar won $1 million)
2003 = 29.8% (Chris Moneymaker won $2.5 million)
2004 = 19.4% (Greg Raymer won $5 million)
2005 = 13.3% (Joe Hachem won $7.5 million)
2006 = 13.7% (Jamie Gold won $12 million)
I certainly don’t expect them to go back to the days of 30+% for first place. But with 4,000 players, it would take about 19-20% of the prizepool to award $7.5 million for first place, equalling the 2005 prize. (With a percentage similar to Raymer’s prize three years ago.)
Another interesting thing to watch is the total prizepool for the entire World Series of Poker. With 10 extra events this year, it’s conceivable that they could beat last year’s number, even if the Main Event is smaller.
THE ONLY CONSTANT IS CHANGE
Last year was Pollack’s first WSOP, and most of the changes were focused on improving the comfort of the players to answer complaints from the previous year — better food choices at lower prices, more restrooms with shorter lines, and smoke-free hallways. (There was also a little thing called the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event.) Now that Pollack has experienced the WSOP first hand, and has had a full year to plan and prepare, the improvements are much more substantial.
Harrah’s received some criticism for last year’s Series, but Pollack and his team were clearly listening. Here are three problems from last year that were directly addressed:
1. Double Chips. Many players complained that there wasn’t enough play in the lower buy-in events, where they would start with 2,000 or fewer in chips. So this year, all events will begin with double chips. For example, a $1,500 buy-in event would start with 3,000 in chips. That doesn’t mean there will be twice as much play (as the blinds have also increased proportionally), but tournament director Jack Effel says the flexibility of more chips allowed him to add a few extra levels of blinds in the crucial middle rounds.
2. Fresh Decks For Every Table, Every Day. There were complaints about used decks last year; Andy Bloch was particularly vocal about this during the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event, tearing up what he considered to be marked cards until he received a 10-minute penalty. So Harrah’s made a deal with U.S. Playing Card, who will be providing a fresh deck of Kem-quality cards for each table every day. (Read the press release here.)
3. Increased Training For Dealers and Floorstaff. The WSOP utilizes hundreds of poker dealers, and last year some players complained about inexperienced dealers, particularly in the non-hold’em events. This year, Harrah’s has set up a training program for about 300 dealers, certifying them to deal all the games for the WSOP. Floor staff will also undergo additional training this year, and it sounds like they’ll specifically address chip count discrepancies like the one reported by Amy Calistri and Tim Lavalli.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg. Harrah’s will be using all-new chips this year. Additional tables have been added, so no events will start with 11-handed tables like they have the past two years. The cash game area has been moved to another part of the room and given its own cashier’s cage. Satellite registration has been improved, and a wider variety of satellites (including some with 2 and 3 tables) will be offered this year. Harrah’s has also added online pre-registration, for players who want to sign up in advance and avoid the long lines.
And that’s not all.
UPDATED LOGO RULES
Harrah’s has finally brought sense to the silly dot-net rules. Ending a website with “.net” doesn’t provide any magical legality; it’s just a de facto industry standard that play-money sites end with .net, and real-money sites end with .com. But the past rules about logos treated the “.net” suffix as if it were sacred.
Now, the logo rules are based on criteria that make much more sense.
1. Poker sites that don’t take real-money bets from U.S. players are free to use their normal logo (even if it includes .com).
2. Poker sites that do take real-money bets from U.S. players can only use a logo that links to a play-money site, and the suffix (.net) must be the same size as the rest of the letters in the name.
3. Poker sites that are infringing on Harrah’s WSOP trademark rights will not be allowed sponsor logos at all. (Harrah’s has been actively enforcing their WSOP logo recently, so the major sites should have been warned.)So PartyPoker, which no longer allows U.S. customers to bet real money, is free to use their regular logo. Full Tilt and PokerStars, which do have paying U.S. customers, must use their “.net” logos. If any site (even “legal” PartyPoker) has been abusing the WSOP trademark, their logos will be banned entirely.
Another important change is that players are allowed to wear multiple logos, which will encourage a wider pool of sponsors. With only one logo allowed, most mainstream companies wouldn’t be able to outbid the online poker sites. But with multiple logos, players might be willing to accept less from non-poker companies for a secondary logo. It will probably take some time for these non-poker sponsorships to develop, but I think we should see more variety in the companies sponsoring players by the 2008 WSOP.
HERSHEY’S: THE OFFICIAL CHOCOLATE OF THE WSOP
One of the primary struggles during the poker boom has been attracting more mainstream sponsors to our game. Sure we’ve had alcohol companies (Milwaukee’s Best Light), energy drinks (SoBe Adrenaline Rush), and erectile disfunction drugs (Levitra), but nothing truly mainstream.
Ideally, sponsorship is a two-way street. The sponsors are obviously using the sponsorship to advertise to poker players. But there’s also a reciprocal effect; a mainstream sponsor can also expose more people to poker.
This year, Ty Stewart has signed The Hershey Company as an official sponsor of the WSOP. It’s hard to get more mainstream or more traditionally American than Hershey.
Hershey has already announced a contest called “Sweet Seats,” and the grand prize is entry into the 2008 WSOP Main Event. Over the next year, this all-American company will be advertising a contest focused on the World Series of Poker. This deal is worth far more to poker than the check that Hershey’s is sending to Harrah’s.Ty Stewart promises more announcements on sponsorship deals before the WSOP begins. I imagine it’s no coincidence that Harrah’s is tightening the reigns on advertising by online poker sites as they target more mainstream sponsors, but the tradeoff is definitely worth it in the long run.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
This article is already long than I planned, and there is still much more to cover. In the coming days, I plan to analyze the new WSOP schedule, the missing Tournament of Champions, and the WSOP Europe. I’ll also be covering the various aspects of online tournament coverage, and how it relates to the new media deal with Bluff Magazine.
The World Series of Poker is the highlight of the poker year, and the one time the rest of the world pays attention. But even in this era of poker uncertainty, I finally think the future of the WSOP is in good hands.
2007 WSOP Preview: Harrah’s
Friday, March 30, 2007
