WSOP 2011: Fun Facts And Stats

Following the aftermath of poker’s Black Friday in the US, the 2011 World Series Of Poker amazingly has become the biggest yet in the 42 year history of the Las Vegas event.
The 58 tournaments held at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino, attracted 75,672 players from more than 100 countries to beat the previous record set last year (72,966) by 3.7%.
Furthermore, the entire series managed to generate a prize pool worth an incredible $191,999,010, up 2.6% on the previous record set at WSOP 2010 of $187,109,850.
This means the series boasted 46 events with prize pools in excess of $1 million, up two from last year’s record of 44 events.
Even the showpiece $10k Main Event produced the third-largest field ever recorded at 6,865 entrants, only 454 players short of the 2010 tally. Consequently, the top prize is set at $8,711,956, meaning the first place prize hasn’t dipped below $8 million since Joe Hachem won the Main Event in 2005 for $7.5 million.
With just the Main Event left to complete, here is the WSOP bracelet tally won per country. The US is inevitably way ahead in its own backyard, and the count would be higher still but US residents Eugene Katchalov (Ukraine), Owais Ahmed (Pakistan) and Athanasios Polychronopoulos (Greece) accepted their awards on behalf of their countries of origin.
USA = 37
Canada = 4
France = 4
UK = 3
Russia = 3
Ukraine = 2
Brazil = 1
Pakistan = 1
Greece = 1
Sweden = 1
Other interesting facts emerging from this year’s WSOP is that it now enjoys a record 12 consecutive year’s of multiple bracelet winners, after Brian Rast’s victory in the $1.5k PLO event and the $50k Poker Players’ Championship.
 
Finally, things wouldn’t be complete without mentioning the current Player Of The Year at WSOP 2011, Phil Hellmuth. The 46 year old poker legend has cashed fives times at this year’ series, finishing runner-up in three events for a total payout of $1,591,004.
Still playing in the Main Event, Hellmuth now holds the record for the most WSOP bracelets won (11), most cashes (84), and final table appearances (43). However, Hellmuth will be hoping to add further to his impressive tally as Day 3 gets underway later today.