Disinterest In The WSOP (It's Going Downhill Fast)

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Poker News :: Jun 18, 2015 :: Matt Glantz

Matt Glantz Says the World Series of Poker is Losing its Luster


The opening three weeks of the 2015 World Series of Poker have been packed with first-time bracelet winners, repeat wins from some of the game’s biggest young stars. Underlying all of that though is an active and vocal base of professional players who are dissatisfied with the way things have gone from an operational standpoint. Matt Glantz reached out to BLUFF, wanting to articulate the frustration he’s felt this summer and offer a potential way to make the WSOP better.


Coming into this year’s World Series of Poker I saw all the usual excitement from the poker community that was anticipating another great summer in Vegas. Unfortunately, that excitement has quickly turned to frustration and disappointment.

The WSOP is losing its luster.

At the start of this current WSOP we saw the introduction of sub-standard playing cards. Paper thin cards which make them too easily marked and or damaged. There have been numerous instances of players pointing this out to dealers, floor staff and WSOP management team. After an orbit or two of normal card handling, players have been easily identifying face cards and aces without seeing the face. The small type size on the cards make it difficult to distinguish suits from the far side of the table. These cards should have been properly vetted prior to the series. This should never happen. There really is no good excuse for this mistake.

Then we saw the new structures in place for the lower buy-in mixed events. I give the WSOP credit for trying to improve in this area, but these structures create way too much play at the beginning of tournaments at the expense of the later stages. The 22+ hours of grinding without reaching the money in these smaller buy-in mixed events has started taking a major toll on the players’ bodies and eventually mindsets. This started very early in the Series and doesn’t bode well for a promising later half of the summer. Players that would play every event possible in previous summers and rarely look at the schedule are now becoming much more selective on which events to enter. This is an obvious hindrance to field sizes. Drops in field sizes should concern everyone. This is one of those things that manifests upon itself and starts the spiral downward. Once it starts, it is very hard to turnaround. In the defense of the WSOP, this is something they did with the sole intention of improving structures for the players. It is of no benefit financially or otherwise to them to slow down tournaments. I am certain with all the backlash from the players this will be corrected for 2016..

The lack of media coverage has been a major factor in the lack of excitement this year. I think this happened to a bigger degree than any of us could have realized. While the WSOP surely had valid business reasons to drop the PokerNews, they might come to regret that decision. The WSOP coverage has been adequate at best, but it surely lacks all the bells and whistles of the PokerNews coverage of years past. From talking with some of the live reporting staff it seems that the issue this year is a real lack of experience in the group. It’s clear they’re undermanned but having a more seasoned group of reporters would have gone a long way. The reporters we have do seem to be working very hard, but this group, some who had experience and some who didn’t, was destined to fail.

In previous years PokerNews helped tremendously to produce a more exciting atmosphere overall. The unknown recreational players truly loved the PokerNews MyStack App to update chip counts for their friends and family back home. It added so much to the WSOP experience and made everybody feel a part of action. I believe the WSOP executives are going to truly feel the long term effects eventually and regret this decision to take the media and live reporting in-house.

These issues combined with the usual cashier cage issues and no real improvement in food offerings from the previous years are what the majority of players are blaming for their newly found disinterest in the WSOP.

While these major problems exist it should also be noted that WSOP management do an excellent job of running events. Events start on time. There are rarely any major problems with thousands of players fields in which always have potential to be a logistical nightmare. The WSOP marketing team does an amazing job every year. The floor staff is as good as it gets in this business. Things could be a whole lot worse.

To the WSOP powers that be; Ty Stewart, Jack Effel and Seth Palansky,

The WSOP is losing its luster. I can honestly say this is the first summer I have ever had the thought that I might not come back next year. I might actually skip the WSOP. When talking about it with my peers I am hearing similar thoughts across the board. You should be greatly concerned. You should be scared.

You desperately need the help of the players. While you have always been open to suggestions from players and taking the suggestions back to your internal committees to make decisions, this needs to change. This system is broken. The time has come for the players to be an intimate part of the decision making process. Without the help of the players your brand is going to suffer and pretty quickly your business will follow suit.

You need a WSOP players panel. A group of six to eight poker players that are respected by their peers, that are representative of the entire WSOP customer base, and that are willing to take on the responsibility of helping to grow the WSOP brand. This group needs to be paid a reasonable compensation by the WSOP for the work they will need to do. They will need to be open and responsive to the entire poker community. It will not be an easy job for the players, but it will certainly make your jobs much easier and help you to assure success.

You need the help of the players, and the players willing to help.