WSOP Main Event Field Down

by Mario Alfonsi  |  Published on Jul 11, 2012  |  Updated on Jul 11, 2012

One of the mostly unspoken fears that many had over the 2012 World Series of Poker Main Event was a worry about the size of the field. Last year, the poker world was pleasantly surprised to see the third-largest field in WSOP history, as 6,865 turned out to compete just months after Black Friday rocked the online poker world.However, there were concerns that perhaps players were taking one shot at last year’s WSOP, using their remaining bankrolls to see if they could make a big score or pack it in and move on from poker. Also of concern was the fact that online entries were going to take a big hit in 2012. While some sites like Party Poker and 888 Poker gave away a number of WSOP packages, PokerStars did not send a single player other than their team of sponsored pros. With hundreds – and sometimes thousands – of players winning seats on PokerStars each year, it seemed unlikely that the WSOP could duplicate last year’s success.But the poker community is nothing if not resilient. When the final numbers came in for this year’s event, a total of 6,598 players had registered for the tournament – only 267 less than last year. That was good enough to make it the fifth-largest live poker tournament in history, and considering the circumstances, has been seen almost universally as a success for the tournament.The big field also means big prizes for the eventual winners. This year’s World Champion will take home a prize of $8,527,982 along with a custom-designed gold bracelet. A total of 666 players will cash in the event, splitting a prize pool of more than $62 million between them.Day 2 play began on Tuesday after three Day 1 starting days concluded. The overall leader at the end of Day 1 was William John, who brought 266,700 into Day 2. The most notable name in the Top 10 was Vanessa Selbst, who came in 7^th with over 168,000 chips. Selbst has already won one WSOP bracelet this year, becoming the first woman to win an open WSOP event since she did it herself back in 2008.