Black Friday Waves Felt On Live Poker Tournament Scene

Roughly one year ago, Black Friday in the US turned the poker industry on its head leaving many online pros with bankrolls still tied up in frozen accounts, and with nowhere else to play except, perhaps, brick and mortar casinos.
As a consequence of online poker’s demise in the US, the ripples have been felt even on the live tournament scene, with an interesting article by Erik Fast at Cardplayer shedding some light on what those changes have entailed.
One of the first casualties of the DoJ’s anti-poker crusade have been low buy-in tournaments of $500 or less, which have seen their attendance figures fall by 7.8% overall.
This trend has also continued at the opposite extreme of the spectrum with six-figure buy-in super high roller events, which had been on the rise pre Black-Friday. For instance, over a year period the PCA $100k super high roller, the Aussie Millions $100k high roller and the Aussie Millions $250k super high roller, saw their total combined attendance drop from 96 players to just 70 representing a decline of 27%.
In addition, two US tours have hit the rail altogether, including Full Tilt Poker’s fledgling Onyx Cup, as well as the year old PokerStars sponsored North American Poker Tour which was suspended after its online backer’s domain was seized by US authorities.
However, bucking the trend has been the World Series of Poker, which saw its attendance numbers rise by 4% to 75,672 players in 2011 compared to 72,966 players the year before.
Another winner has been the re-entry event which allows a player to buy back in once eliminated, as opposed to re-buys tournaments. The success of this format has taken the poker world by storm ensuring greater prize pools despite lower buy-in fees. As Bellagio Tournament Director Jack McClelland explains:
“Then when the economy took a dive, we tried to increase our prize pools by offering rebuys. Those didn’t really work out, because they scared away those with lower bankrolls who couldn’t afford multiple buy-ins. So far, it looks like re-entry events appeal to players of all bankrolls. The buy-ins are low enough to bring in casual players, but still allow the pros to come in and do their thing.”