you don't seem to get it. this is the World Series of Poker. it is not the money the pros are after. it is the bracelet, being called the 2005 world champion. why has it turned into a crapshoot? have they raised the blinds every 10 minutes because of the big field? no. you are still playing against the other 9 people at YOUR table. you are not playing the other 5000 all at once.

I only agree with the first statement. I say:

The larger the field, the more luck is involved
The larger the field, the more skill is involved

:)

Adam's on the right page. Sure, luck is gonna play a bigger factor w/ a bigger field because there's more play and "luck" situations involved. However, skill plays a much bigger factor here than luck because luck and catching cards can only carry you so far. An unskilled player is more likely to outlast a smaller field than a larger one based solely on a good run of cards, if you strip out any skill whatsoever. Eventually the coin flips or suck out attempts are gonna come up empty as you extend the field and amount of play.

more importantly, its hard to have ridiculous skill for 6-7 straight days...this is why a skillful player will win wsop more often than not..just not a "name" player because there is so many more skilled players than before

WSOP is in a lose/lose position right now.

15-20 years ago, golf went through an incredible boom. Everybody wanted to play, but there weren't nearly enough courses to accomodate the demand.

Every existing course started jacking up their prices. A huge building boom started with building budgets based on the increased demand and pricing.

Golf soon priced itself out of demand. New courses, and some existing ones that had used the boom to expand their facilities, started falling behind the cash flows needed to support their obligations. More than a few have gone bankrupt.

The very same thing could happen to poker. It could become so successful that it starves itself to death.

Dunce

Why do you want to see the cream of the crop battling it out? Isn't that what we see on the dozens of other televised tournaments throughout the year? I see the cream of the crop battling it out every night on ESPN or the Travel Channel. I want to root for the underdog. I want to see a guy win an online satellite for 30 bucks and take down a $5 million dollar payday. Every single professional had to start somewhere. Moneymaker was a complete no-name, but his WSOP win was definitely a springboard into celebrity status. That's what I like to see. I see enough of the cream of the crop battling it out.

And, this might sound ridiculous to some of you, but what makes these great players "great?" Answer: They play for a living, have a lot of experience and even more exposure. That's all. This isn't Major League Baseball vs the Cactus Leagues. I can take about 50 regular posters off of this site, put them at a final table with 8 or 9 other pros, and I would not be surprised to see one pull it off. And, I'm not just talking about guys on the top 10 list on here. That's the beauty of poker! There is NOT a marked difference between the very best and other great players. After a certain point, it's just a matter of subtleties.

I'm ready for the blasting I'm about to take for this, but bring it on.

i agree....keep it at 10k..
the pros will have their PPT...which over time will have greatly increased prize payouts..
and that phil hellmuth will whine about a pro knocking him out instead of you or me..

Wow, a lot of comments on this thread. I hate to tell you guys, but raising the buy-in isnt going to solve anything. All they will do is break down the buy-in and run even MORE satillites and you will end up with the same field. There are only 2 ways to cut down the field.

1) Put a cap on the # of entrants (not a good idea IMP)

2) Make a "world series buy-in" what do I mean? Everyone payes 30K....still having online sats and things like that...but the "buy-in" is 30k. The prize pool is split up equally over all of the event...so there will be one NLHE event, one LHE event, one O8/OB evnt, etc. The prize money for each event will be the same. Each event will also award points. You can play in as many or as few events as you like, but the person with the most points at the end is the one who is called the "World Champion of Poker" . The person who accumulates the most points over SEVERAL different poker games is CLEARLY the best player in the world. But at the same time, people could still play their game(s) of choice and win close to a million dollars for each win. Did I explain that well?

Luck is always involved, but to what is being said takes away from what these guys on the leaderboard are doing. It isn't that BR, Bax, H0, gator, etc. are the luckiest people online against huge fields. The level of skill involved in winning the main event, is what makes it prestigious. Most of the WPT events have hundreds of players and the final table is generally a recongnizable bunch of people. It'll take a hell of a string of luck to see a complete fish win the WSOP.

As far as the larger fields making the World Series a crapshoot I think it does make it that much more difficult to win, but I refer you to a Mr. Dan Harrington. His accomplishment in final tables '03-'04 kind of boggles the mind. I for one expect to see him there again, and if not D.H., then the final table will be made up of 6 or 7 of the best players in the world + 2 hot newcommers and maybe one REALLY lucky guy.
I don't know much about the PPT, are there going to be entry requirements? Q school? I think the appeal of the WSOP is the openness of it so restricting the field arbitrarily would be a disaster. I do like supermoves suggestion that more weight be given to the preliminary events, but spreading the prizepool out seems unmanagable. I think the pros are really getting psyched about Player of the Year, as a prestige prize. I know Daniel Negranu and John Juanda battling it out last year was quite compelling, and this year should have some interesting stories as well.
The WSOP will remain in the spotlight, but I think the Pros know what really matters and give respect where respect is due.

My thing about the WSOP is that it conjures up great memrie such as moneymaker and fossilman. To try and minimize the field is an insult to the "pros" skill. Why shouldnt they go through a large field to win the most pretigious event in poker.