WSOP 2023 – Facts and Figures: Through Events #1-24

One of the fun things for poker fans and players – or just nerds – is to break down the World Series of Poker by the numbers. Sometimes, the WSOP staff releases numbers at the end of the summer series, showing the total amount of prize money awarded, countries represented, and tournament entries. Some people – nerds – don’t want to wait until it’s over.

We want numbers as the WSOP moves along. So, I track them myself.

With the first 24 live gold bracelet events completed, let’s see how everything is adding up so far.

Overall Totals

In the first 24 live bracelet events this year at the Horseshoe and Paris properties in Las Vegas, these are the overall totals:

• Total entries in first 24 events:  63,874
• Total places paid:  4,628
• Total prize $ awarded:  $55,720,137
• Total prize $ awarded to winners:  $11,552,987

So far, the majority of the tournaments have shown increases from the previous year. The Tournament of Champions’ participation isn’t relevant because it consisted of qualifiers only. And the NLHE Heads-Up Championship remained the same as last year because it was capped at 64 players both years.

Other than those two exceptions, these are the results so far:

• Events with increased participation from 2022 to 2023:  17
• Events with decreased participation from 2022 to 2023:  2
• New events this year:  3

The most significant growth occurred in some unlikely places:

• 51.5% increase in $2,500 NLHE Freezeout
• 45.7% increase in $10K Limit Hold’em Championship
• 45.2% increase in $1,500 Razz

The two events with decreased participation were:

• 28% decrease in $5K Mixed NLHE/PLO
• 2.8% decrease in $5K NLHE Freezeout

Player of the Year Standings

While it is unclear how frequently the WSOP staff updates the Player of the Year points, this list appears to be close to accurate for the first 24 events:

• 1.  Chad Eveslage (USA) 2,168.65 points
• 2.  Tyler Brown (USA) 1,739.89 points
• 3.  Nick Schulman (USA) 1,476.10 points
• 4.  Michael Moncek (USA) 1,441.06 points
• 5.  Michael Rodrigues (Portugal) 1,340 points
• 6.  Josh Arieh (USA) 1,309.93 points
• 7.  Brian Yoon (USA) 1,293.08 points
• 8.  Jim Collopy (USA) 1,284.95 points
• 9.  Isaac Haxton (USA) 1,277.04 points
• 10.  Stephen Nahm (Canada) 1,249.46

Other Player Stats

In earnings thus far, the WSOP shows the amount of money earned at this year’s summer series thus far. It is not clear if online bracelets are included in the lists or exactly how often the lists are updated, but this is the information as of Monday, June 12.

First, the amount of earnings thus far:

• 1.  Isaac Haxton (USA) $1,698,215
• 2.  Alexandre Vuilleumier (Switzerland) $1,215,864
• 3.  Tyler Brown (USA) $1,092,362
• 4.  Ryan O’Donnell (UK) $1,052,047
• 5.  Chance Kornuth (USA) $752,513
• 6.  Darren Elias (USA) $725,790
• 7.  Sean Winter (USA) $710,619
• 8.  Jans Arends (Netherlands) $694,019
• 9.  Jeremy Eyer (USA) $649,550
• 10.  Guang Chen (USA) $562,382

As far as the number of cashes thus far, the top of the charts is a bit more mixed:

• 1.  Ivan Starostin (USA) 7 cashes
• 2-5.  Euan Mcnicholas (UK) 6 cashes
• 3.  Alex Livingston (Canada) 6 cashes
• 4.  Anthony Potis (USA) 6 cashes
• 5.  Jordan Spurlin (USA) 6 cashes

Everyone else has earned five or fewer cashes thus far.

From Whence They Came

The winners of the first 24 events at the 2023 WSOP hailed from eight countries. Most of them are from the United States, obviously, as the series takes place in the USA. But Canada has claimed two bracelets thus far, with some other countries making their presence known.

• USA (US) 16
• Canada (CA) 2
• Brazil (BR) 1
• Bulgaria (BG) 1
• Germany (DE) 1
• Portugal (PT) 1
• Switzerland (CH) 1
• Ukraine (UA) 1

Women Represented

The female demographic is very underrepresented at final tables this year so far. The general tournament average in poker tournaments – at least in the WSOP Main Event each year – averages 5% to 6%.

But in our tracking of final tables for all of the first 24 events, the number is much lower:

• Total final table seats:  190
• Total women at final tables:  3 (1.6%)

The women who did make final tables, in order of their earnings at said tables were:

• Sarah Herzali (France) $107,720 for 3^rd place in $1,500 NLHE 6-Handed
• Kristen Foxen (USA) $69,683 for 7^th place in $5K Mixed NLHE/PLO
• Lisa Eckstein (USA) $5,686 for 9^th place in $500 NLHE Casino Employees

😍 QUELLE PERF’ !

🔥 Notre ancienne Team Pro @Sarah_Herzali termine 3e de l'Event #15: $1,500 6-Handed No-Limit Hold'em des WSOP pour 207 720$ !

Un grand bravo Sarah 👏

📸 Credit : @AuCoeurDeVegas pic.twitter.com/2vgbR7grkb

— PMU Poker 🔞 (@PMU_Poker) June 9, 2023