2011 WORLD SERIES OF POKER OUTPERFORMS 2010

Thursday July 7, 2011 : Almost 69 000 registrations for events this year
 
With 5 weeks of action almost completed in 57 events, fears are fading that US enforcement actions in the online poker environment might negatively impact the World Series of Poker this year.
 
With the main event still to come, tournament officials have reported that so far there have been 68,807 entries in 57 events – 8.5 percent ahead of the same stage last year and on pace to surpass last year's record of 72,966.
 
And total prize money so far of about $127.5 million is also up more than 8 percent from last year.
 
"Players will chase the action," says tournament director Ty Stewart. "While it was easy to find action online, the biggest and the best action is in Las Vegas in the World Series of Poker. Whatever bankrolls players had, we saw them bring to Las Vegas this summer."
 
The next measure will be the Main Event, so large that its opening day of action will be spread out in four flights Thursday through Sunday. Last year's Main Event drew 7,319 entries, the second most populated of all time.
 
This year, the ESPN television will more than double its hours of TV coverage during daily presentations of Main Event play. The hole cards will be shown on a 30-minute delay during six days of coverage July 14-19.
 
The Main Event will run through July 19 until the field is cut to a final table of nine, as was the case last year. Finalists then will recess and play out the final table November 5-7.