The WSOP Main Event

The WSOP Main Event (also referred to as the WSOP ME) is the culmination of more than 50 events that take place over a month and a half in the summer in Las Vegas (click here for a full schedule of WSOP events).

The Main Event is considered by most to be the world championship event for poker each year, as it both draws the most entrants (6359 total entries in 2007) and has the most prize money at stake (with first place winner Jerry Yang taking home $8,250,000 for his victory in 2007).

Some fans and casual players are a bit confused by the fact that the WSOP Main Event is just one of a series of tournaments held each year during the World Series of Poker, and the addition of bigger buy-in events in recent years has only muddied the water.

While the Main Event is still viewed as the tournament for all of the marbles and world championship bragging rights, in 2008 it will be just one of eight different events that have a buy-in of $10,000, and all of those are dwarfed by the price tag for Event #40, which is a $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. tournaments.

The difference, though, is that while the other events will be lucky to draw even 1,000 entries, the Main Event is very likely to draw 7,000-8,000 entries in 2008, which will make it one of the five largest live poker tournaments ever held. It’s truly a gargantuan event, befitting of the world championship, as the winner has to play his or her way through a huge, crowded field to emerge victorious when the dust finally settles.