2013 WSOP Countdown: Moneymaker Effect Turns 10

Posted by Steve Ruddock on May 04, 2013 Posted in Poker News | No Comments »

2013_schedule_carouselIt wasn’t until a few days ago that I realized the 2013 World Series of Poker would mark the 10-year anniversary of Chris Moneymaker’s improbable WSOP Main Event win back in 2003, so I thought it would be a good time to take a look at just how much the poker world has changed in 2013 compared to 2003.

The 2003 Final Table vs. the 2012 Final Table

Perhaps the most pronounced difference you’ll find when comparing the 2003 WSOP Main Event to the most recent 2012 WSOP Main Event, is the name recognition of the final table participants at the time they make the final table.

What many people forget is that Moneymaker didn’t triumph over some collection of no-names at the 2003 final table, he beat Dan Harrington, Jason Grey, Jason Lester, Amir Vahedi, Sammy Farha, and David Singer – not to mention that Phil Ivey finished in 10th place. Going back a couple of years you’ll see that the final table of the WSOP Main Event was dominated by pretty well-known pros (you may not recognize some of these names but at the time they were well-respected tournament players):

* 1999 – Alan Goehring, Padraig Parkinson, Erik Seidel, Chris Bigler, and Huck Seed finished 2nd through 6th

* 2000 – Chris Ferguson, TJ Cloutier, Hasan Habib, Jeff Shulman, Mickey Appleman, and Tom Franklin (Annie Duke finished in 10th place and Mike Sexton finished in 12th place)

* 2001 – Phil Hellmuth, Mike Matusow, Phil Gordon, Carlos Mortensen, and Dewey Tomko (Daniel Negreanu finished in 11th place)

* 2002 – Minh Ly, Russell Rosenblum, Julian Garner, Tony D, Ralph Perry (Martin de Kniff finished in 13th place and Phil Ivey finished in 23rd)

As you can see, aside from 2002, the WSOP final table was a collection of pros. But by 2004 this had all changed. Of course, many of the players who make the final table now go on to decent careers, but there doesn’t seem to be any hope that we are going to get more than one or two recognizable names at a WSOP Main Event final table on any consistent basis.

Bracelets: Whose Winning Them and How Many

In 1999 there were a total of 16 WSOP bracelets handed out; by 2003 that number had grown to 36; and today over 60 bracelets are handed out at the WSOP in Las Vegas, and another 12 or so at the WSOP Europe and WSOP APAC.

Furthermore, take a look at the list of bracelet winners from 2003:

* David Lukaszewski (Casino Employee event)

* Mohammed Ibrahim

* Toto Leonidas

* Chris Ferguson

* Jim Meehan

* Prahlad Friedman

* Minh Nguyen

* Erik Seidel

* Doyle Brunson

* Chris Ferguson

* Phi Nguyen

* Phil Hellmuth Jr

* Michael Saltzburg

* O’Neil Longson

* Johnny Chan

* Eddy Scharf

* John Arrage

* Huck Seed

* Layne Flack

* Mickey Appleman

* Ron Rose

* John Juanda

* Amir Vahedi

* Daniel Negreanu

* Johnny Chan

* Layne Flack

* Tom Jacobs

* Barb Rugolo (Ladies Champion)

* Frankie O’Dell

* Charles Keith Lehr

* Men Nguyen (2) and a pair of runner-up finishes

* Phil Hellmuth Jr

* John Juanda

* Juan Carlos Mortensen

Basically, in just 10 years the WSOP has changed from a meet-up for poker pros to a place where poker pros are made.

 



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