Expect Significant Shrinkage
Wow! Does this suck or what?
The word out there is that the days of online qualifying for the World Series of Poker are over folks!
How come?
Well, there was a leak from Harrah’s Entertainment, the company that happens to own the World Series, that online qualifiers for the World Series will no longer be accepted. More exactly, it was said that Harrah will no longer accept “third party registrations” on behalf of poker web sites and online satellite winners.
Thomson, the director of Harrah’s communication clarified, “While we’re still reviewing registration requirements, it’s likely we will accept third-party registrations from entities such as charitable and civic organizations and offline tribal and commercial casinos in the US and abroad with whom we have licensing agreements to conduct WSOP satellites, as well as entities for which we have sponsorship agreements that run contests for their customers. We will most likely not be accepting third-party registrations from other entities. We will, of course, continue to accept registrations from individuals.”
So it will probably not be possible to win your seat online. Some online web sites are already implementing this. Full Tilt, for example, already sent out an email: “Unfortunately due to the upcoming change in legislation Full Tilt Poker will no longer be able to satellite US residents into live tournaments in US. This policy will be effective immediately.”
Player response?
“THIS is the end of online poker. When the WSOP/WPT attendance dies, so will the influx of new players. Un-[censored] real.”
“It’s safe to say that more than 4,400 players who played in this year’s main event got in it by playing online poker. To put it into perspective, that number is only 1,219 less than the total number of players in last year’s main event, and dominates the 2004 figure of 2,576 players.”
Of course, you can win 10K online and use that as your entry fee. The question is: how many players will be temped to cash out their 10K instead of using it for the WSOP?
Expect significant shrinkage folks.