For the bunch of you that know, the United States is going through a bit of a financial problem within the economy right now and because of this the expectations for the 2008 World Series of Poker was not to high seeing how every casino on the strip in Las Vegas was reporting a loss in revenue. But do not worry the international field of players have got the United States back when it comes to the 2008 World Series of Poker $10,000 Main Event.
The World Series of Poker released a statement not to long ago that revealed because of the popularity of the game getting more and more intriguing to players in other countries, this years World Series of Poker saw players that represented 118 different countries. That is a very impressive number seeing how only a year ago the number of countries that came out to play was only at 63 different countries. The number that is the most impressive would have to be that just in the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event 72 countries were represented and that’s 9 countries more than all of last year and that’s in the main event alone.
The question was asked to many different pros at the World Series of Poker this year and many had to say that because a lot of international players are seeing players such as Joe Hachem who is from Australia who won the main event in 2005 and Jerry Yang who was born in Laos but then later moved to California who won the 2007 main event. The international players are watching and getting dreams of their own of wanting to be the next international player to take down a bracelet. Other pros were suggesting that movies such as “Rounders” and “Casino Royale” also helped start the craze internationally, almost the exact same way it did in the United States.
One thing is known, that with the problems that are going on within the United States, more and more tournaments are going to be looking for more international players to arrive for the more monstrous prize pools such as this years World Series of Poker prize pool which ended at $180.7 million which is up from $159.8 million of last years. So if more and more international players show up, then I don’t see the United States economy hurting the big name poker tournaments here within the United States.