The numbers are in on the latest running of PokerStars’ World Championship of Online Poker, the first of its kind to exclude players from the US.
Bad news first. After handing out more than $63 million to in-the-money finishers in 2010, PokerStars managed to pony up only $47,120,800 this time around. The same number of events (62) were run in each of those two seasons, meaning that the per-event prizes dropped considerably.
There is some good news here, however. Despite the downgrade in prizes, each and every event still managed to meet its guarantee. The total of $47 million also ranked third on the all-time WCOOP prize list.
The playing field in general, according to PokerNewsReport, “was approximately 35% less than last year. For the smaller and mid-level buy-in tourneys, the field size saw a decrease of around 20% to 25% than the same tournaments played in 2010.”
If there was one major winner here, it appears to be the nation of Canada. The country captured six bracelets in this year’s running, after failing to collect a single first place finish in 2010. Some consider this as proof that former US players are relocating en mass, with $6.4 million in total prizes headed to the Great White North.
Even with a drop in enrollment, PokerStars themselves still made off like bandits. The online gaming giant managed to collect an incredible $2.7 million in rake, $325,400 of which came from the Main Event alone. On average, then, the company managed to draw $43,850.61 per event.