2016 WSOP Attracts 107,833 Total Entries, Breaks Several Records
The 2016 World Series of Poker attracted a record 107,833 entries, up more than four percent over last year's record-setting festival that attracted 103,512 entries. It was only the second time in the event's storied history that over 100,000 entries were generated, and with it came $221,211,336 in prize money awarded.
The $221,211,336 in prize money that was awarded at the 2016 WSOP was the third most of all time, coming in behind the 2012 and 2014 editions of the event when there was a $1,000,000 Big One for One Drop tournament on the schedule. This was the 12th consecutive year that the WSOP generated a total prize pool across all events of more than $100,000,000 and the fourth time it eclipsed $200,000,000.
Of the 107,833 entries tallied across all events, 15,767 places were paid. There were 69 official gold bracelet events on the schedule, and the average first-place prize came in at $555,475.
The 2016 WSOP Main Event attracted 6,737 entries, up nearly five percent over last year's 6,420. The top 1,011 places were paid — a record for the world's most prestigious poker tournament — and first place was set at $8,000,000.
Click here to find out who reached the 2016 WSOP Main Event final table.
In 2016, the average age per participant was 41.12 years old, ever so slightly up from 2015's average age of 41.04. Males made up 94.87 percent of the fields at the 2016 WSOP, and women accounted for 5.12 percent. Last year, those numbers were 94.56 percent and 5.43 percent, respectively.
As one could have expected, players from the United States represented the biggest group of event competitors, accounting for 84,027 entries, or 77.92 percent. Last year, players from the United States represented 82,439 entries, or 79.64 percent. Once again, players from Canada were the second largest group of participants.
The 2016 WSOP set many new records, including most total entries, most total cashers, largest single starting flight in Main Event history with Day 1c tallying up 4,240 entries, and the largest non-hold'em live tournament field size ever in the $565 Pot-Limit Omaha affair. That event attracted 2,483 entries.
Individual accolades were awarded to players that included Jason Mercier and Roland Israelashvili. Mercier won the 2016 WSOP Player of the Year title, and Israelashvili set a new record for most cashes in a single summer WSOP with 13. With that, Israelashvili also tied the record for most WSOP cashes in a year. Ismael Bojang was previously alone in the most-WSOP-cashes-in-a-year ranks, with 13 cashes in 2014, but four of those cashes came from WSOP Asia-Pacific.
Joe Cada, winner of the 2009 WSOP Main Event for $8,546,435, became the 10th place to surpass $10,000,000 in WSOP earnings. He cashes six times in 2016 for $57,242 total. His best finish was an 11th-place result in the $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em Turbo for $27,804.
Those are only a handful of the numbers and records to come out of the 2016 WSOP. Click here to read more on WSOP.com.
*Photo Credit: Jayne Furman/WSOP, PokerPhotoArchive.com.
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