Men Lie, Women Lie, Numbers Don't: Poker Players Championship

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 World Series of Poker’s Poker Players Championship tell that story and what quick opinions do we have?

$50,000 – Until 2012, when the $1,000,000 buy-in The Big One for One Drop made the WSOP schedule, the Poker Players Championship was the biggest event at the World Series of Poker. The $50,000 buy-in event debuted in 2006 as a HORSE Championship and has been called the Poker Players Championship in 2010.

8 – The event boasted five games during those HORSE Championship days but now includes a rotation of eight variants. All of the HORSE games are played, along with No Limit Hold’em, Pot Limit Omaha and 2-7 Triple Draw.

11 – There have been eleven HORSE Championship or Poker Players Championships since 2006. Chip Reese won the inaugural event and the Chip Reese Memorial Trophy has been presented to the winner since 2008. David Bach, who has won two bracelets this year, won the title in 2009 and Mike Gorodinsky won the event in 2015, en route to winning WSOP Player of the Year.

2 – While there have been eleven installments of the HORSE Championship and Poker Players Championships, there have only been nine winners. That is because Michael Mizrachi and Brian Rast have won the event twice. Mizrachi won in 2010 and 2012, while Rast won his first in 2011 and will now defend his title this year, after winning his second in 2016.

$1,628,757 – On average, HORSE Championship and Poker Players Championship victors have walked away with just over $1.6 million. This year should be slightly below that number, because the WSOP now pays out a higher percentage of the field as compared to a decade ago, but with upticks in some of the bigger buy-in events this summer, including the $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha Championship, 2017’s first place prize could approach the eleven-year average.