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WSOP has become the IKEA of poker. Sell as many cheapish events as possible to as many players as possible.

“A bracelet in every home!” seems to be the motto here.

Then by all means, throw in one or two more expensive gems in the catalog to keep up a reputation for quality and style.

Not so exclusive anymore

From The Big One to a long crowded summer

Once upon a time, the WSOP started.out as The Battle of the Giants in poker. Today it’s been turned into everyman’s supermarket of poker.

To give the WSOP back its original status, they should make it smaller and much more exclusive. How?

What do I know – make it a $200,000 series of deep-stacked one table tournaments in various poker variations.

Points awarded for first, second and third in each tournament and prize money paid out on completion of the whole series.

Make it really expensive

Or at least, top the whole shebang with an enormous $500,000 ultra-deep stacked Main Event. Possibly played in pot limit to avoid premature bust outs.

That’s just ideas off the top of my head, but if the WSOP doesn’t change, I’m sure other events will take over the special role that the WSOP once had.

Such as the High Stakes Poker or the Million Dollar Cash Game, or any new concept that pops up and offers the original feeling of something really, really exclusive.

Neither TV nor live stream?!

Also, not showing the WSOP game on TV until much later is such an outdated behaviour I’m surprised players and sponsors are not rebelling about this. (Or are they?)

I mean, imagine if the Super Bowl or the Stanley Cup didn’t air until months after the finals? The thought is ridiculous, but in poker this is a nightmare coming true ever year.

The most natural would be to live stream the whole series. The poker community loves live streamed poker action. It’s a really nice format, even without whole card cameras.

Instead the WSOP coverage on TV is dragged out over the months until early November. That’s just so stone age.

Don’t get me wrong – I can see the driving forces behind the strategies described here. I just don’t approve of them.