Increasing Circuit Event Attendance

The World Series of Poker Circuit Event at Horseshoe Southern Indiana just concluded. Samuel Oberlin made a miraculous comeback after being down over 4 to 1 in chips to take the title. Unfortunately for him, this event will be remembered for being the smallest Main Event in WSOP Circuit history. Only 84 players made it out to play in this event and there really weren’t any big time names in the field. There were some larger names from the online poker world, but the truly big online names stayed away as well.

A circuit event title is still considered a major event, so why is it that nobody seems to care? Part of it is of course due to all the large buy-in poker events going on around the same time. The other is due to lack of exposure. Nobody wants to go to Elizabeth, In to play a poker tournament unless there is something in it for them. This leads many to ask what could be done to change this trend.

First, I think that Harrah’s needs to get a secondary contract to broadcast some of these events or maybe work something out to have ESPN broadcast these events. People like watching live poker. ESPN, HSN, and even the Travel Channel have all proved this. Many pros have stated that one of their motivations to play in an event is exposure and TV time. Provide some TV time and you will get more participants.

Another option that the WSOP probably does not want to explore is reducing the number of circuit event offerings during the year. There are quite a few stops on the circuit and to a degree the concept may be getting a little tired. Reduce the number of stops by 3 or 4 to make the remaining event more of a big time event. Hold an event in Atlantic City, one in Tunica, one in Vegas, one in Rincon, and one in Iowa. Drop the 2nd AC stop, the Lake Tahoe stop, both Indiana stops, and the New Orleans stop and make the remaining 5 larger events. If you want to just drop four, then keep one of the Indiana stops and drop the other 4. Granted, Harrah’s will not like this idea as well due to loss of revenue, but the casino’s could still hold a tournament set, they just don’t have to label it a WSOP stop and maybe they could offer some lower buy-in. The tournaments would still bring in a decent amount of money and help to make the Circuit stops a little more appealing as they will not be as frequent.

Another option Harrah’s could do is perhaps sign its bracelet winners at the WSOP to an appearance deal that requires them to play at a couple of WSOP circuit Main Events. This would be an added incentive to players playing for a bracelet. Yes, this will not add a huge amount of names, but it would give each even a few names to draw people in. They could advertise that the bracelet winner are playing and draw people in via that route.

More needs to be done to increase crowds to the circuit events. Otherwise, we may see a few repeat performances like we did during this past circuit event.