Men Lie, Women Lie, Numbers Don't

Facts and figures. They make the world go around and, more often than not, tell a story without letting opinions or biases get in the way. Which numbers from the past week tell those stories and what quick opinions do we have?

$1,081,100 – In April, Maria Lampropulos won the partypoker MILLIONS Live Main Event for $1.2 million. Nine months later, Lampropulos picked up another seven-figure score after she won the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Main Event for just over $1 million. Quickly, the Argentine is becoming one of the most successful female players in poker. If Lampropulos keeps this white-hot pace, the comparisons to Vanessa Selbst’s insane run from 2013-2014 will be made and will be deserved.

2005 – Taking nothing away from Lampropulos’ victory or the success of this year’s PCA, which in terms of story lines, PR, and the sort was successful, the numbers tell a different story. The Main Event drew 582 entrants, which was the lowest PCA total since 2005. The change in branding and buy-in from last year likely doesn’t help, but after PokerStars made it sound like they were making a serious push to get 400 satellite winners to this year’s event, that number seems disappointing.  

$1,492,340 – Last week, we mentioned that High Rollers and big buy-in events were here to stay in 2018. While Lampropulos’ seven-figure score stole the headlines, the biggest winner from the series was Cary Katz. The High Roller won the opening $100,000 Super High Roller for just shy of $1.5 million and pushed his career earnings near $14 million in the process. The victory was also Katz’s third-career score over $1 million and with a few more, he could find himself in rare High Roller air.

2018 – We also wondered if Germany’s reign of terror would continue and a few weeks into 2018, we have our answer. It’s still, emphatically, yes. While the Germans were kept out of the PCA High Roller winner’s circle, Koray Aldemir and Christian Rudolph final tabled the PCA Main Event. Outside the Bahamas, Ole Schemion did find his way to the winner’s circle. The German won the WPT European Championship in Berlin, the first of many Champions Club members the WPT will crown in 2018.

16 – The last time a week-long high stakes series was streamed on PokerGO, the German’s flex their muscles and dominated the series. With the inclusion of mixed games in the upcoming U.S. Poker Open schedule, it remains to be seen if the German’s will replicate their Poker Masters success at the USPO. We’ll find out in just over two weeks.