The Biggest Sporting Prize Money in the History of the World

	Downloads Bookmark this site Set as homepage Andrew W Scott

by Gambling Correspondent Andrew W Scott
Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
Friday 6 July 2007

The biggest winner’s cheque for a single sporting event – now what would that be? Wimbledon maybe? The winner gets about US$1.3 million. Nope. What about golf, that’s a rich sport - the British Open perhaps? Actually that’s a mere US$1.8 million. Ah, it’s got to be horse racing, surely. The world’s richest horse race is the Dubai World Cup with a staggering prize of US$6 million, and they give away US$15 million for all the races on that day! Wrong again.

As far as I can determine (and I stand to be corrected, there were some sports I can’t find answers to), the richest single prize in world sport is the winner of the main event at the World Series of Poker. Last year’s unpopular and controversial winner, former Hollywood talent agent Jamie Gold, took home a whopping US$12 million. The total prize pool was a staggering US$87 million, paid out to the top 10% of the record breaking 8,773 entrants, each of whom forked out the US$10,000 entry fee. And it should be remembered that the main event is just the last event in a poker carnival that lasts well over a month. Last year's entire 46-event schedule drew more than 42,000 entrants from 56 countries and distributed more than US$171 million in prize money.

Poker has so often been thought of as a seedy activity, portrayed countless times as the realm of old-time degenerate gamblers in western movies, and as the realm of new-time degenerate gamblers in more modern classics, like Matt Damon’s Rounders. But things have changed now, poker is big business, with an organised world tour, genuine celebrity players, corporate sponsorship, charity days and regular TV coverage. The final table of the main event will be broadcast by ESPN live across the US, and on the internet across the world.

Ever since Aussie Joe Hachem won the big one in 2005, poker in Australia has been booming. A contingent of Aussies, including yours truly, have made the trek to gambling’s mecca for the biggest show in town.

The 2007 World Series of Poker has been underway since June 1, at the Rio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, owned by the world’s biggest casino company, Harrahs. It promised to be the best in the illustrious 38-year history of poker’s richest and most prestigious tournament. But this year’s 55-event schedule has not been without controversy, mostly generated by the pressure put on the venue by the sheer number of events played, and the enormous starting fields in those events. The gargantuan Amazon conference hall has been bursting at the seams at all times of the day and night.

But all these gripes will be forgotten at 12 noon on Friday, Las Vegas time (5am Saturday Australian Eastern time), when the 2007 main event will kick-off, possibly with even more players than in 2006. This event will be the greatest tournament poker marathon the world has ever seen.

The scale of the main event is mind-boggling in every sense of the word. Fifteen-hour days of intense play, day after day after day, with very few breaks and very few rest days. Players have to contend with the psychological pressure of knowing they can be busted out of the tournament at any moment. Indeed there will be a few poor souls who get the dubious distinction of being eliminated on very first hand, losing their entire US$10,000 entry fee in around a minute. But the general pattern is that a little more than half the field gets eliminated every day.

“Day 1” alone takes four days. Why? Because the Amazon room can “only” accommodate 168 poker tables. Combine that with another 63 tables in the “poker pavilion” (read: a glorified tent pitched in a car park) and another 10 tables in the casino’s normal poker room, and those 241 tables (at the regulation 10 players per table) can accommodate 2,410 players per day. If necessary tournament organisers will reluctantly squeeze 11 players on to each table as a last resort, making a theoretical maximum of 2,651 players per day. Initially three day 1s were planned: days 1A, 1B and 1C. But a week ago it was announced that what was formerly a rest day had been re-assigned to day 1D. The number of registrants is a closely guarded secret at this stage, but it doesn’t take a genius to work out that at a rate of say 2,400 players a day, the announcement of a day 1D indicates that more than 7,200 players are expected. Even after the mass eliminations expected on day 1, day 2 is still scheduled to be split over two days, day 2A and 2B. It isn’t until day 3 that the numbers still alive in the tournament are expected to be low enough that a “day” actually becomes able to be played in a single day.

We won’t know the exact number of players (and therefore the total prize pool) until Monday, because entrants continue to register for day 1 as the four days of day 1 proceed. Hence the bizarre situation exists that some players register for the event after some other players have already been eliminated. It is within the realms of possibility that the magical 10,000 player barrier could be broken, creating a total prize pool of over US$100 million.

I’ll be filing stories regularly throughout the tournament, which will finally see a single winner emerge late on the night of Tuesday July 17 (or early the next morning), after probably about 80 hours of gruelling poker. It will be a life-changing event for that person, and hopefully it will be me! Yes, that’s right, I’ve decided to stump up the US$10,000 entry fee and take my shot. Hey, someone’s got to win, right? I’ll keep you posted. Wish me luck!