Entering 2014, poker is at somewhat of a crossroads. The game is still very popular, but tournament attendance and public interest in televised poker has been on the decline in recent years. That being said, we now have licensed online poker starting to proliferate in the United States, which has started (*started*) to kick off a renaissance, or at the very least the belief that there will be renaissance.
So, will poker wax or wane in 2014 and beyond? I have a feeling that the following five tournaments will be a good predictor. In my opinion, as goes these five tournaments, so goes poker.
The Aussie Millions Main Event (January 2014)
Once a rival to the PokerStars PCA, the Aussie Millions has been trending downward over the past couple of years and is starting to look more like a standard EPT/WPT tournament series than one of the five most prestigious events in poker –which it could lay claim to not very long ago.
One problem may simply be the current poker economy, and players’ unwillingness to spend so much money to travel halfway around the globe when they have plenty of options closer to home. Not to mention they now have to deal with new competition in the form of the biannual WSOP APAC (also on this list, but for different reasons), which makes it even more unlikely poker pros are going to make two trips to Australia, and they will have to choose between one or the other.
WPT Championship at the Borgata (April 2014)
As soon as the WPT announced it was moving their championship from its longtime home at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, to the Borgata in Atlantic City, this tournament immediately took on added significance.
The WPT Championship (a $25,000 buy-in tournament) has turned into little more than a battle of the pros in recent years, and amid declining attendance numbers and a structure that Allen Kessler probably finds slow, the WPT had to do something to try to bring amateurs back into the mix.
The move to the Borgata could potentially do this.
Bwin.party owns Party Poker and the WPT, and the Borgata has partnered with the company to provide online poker in New Jersey, so there is a lot of potential for live and online satellites in the Garden State, and cross-promotions between Party Poker’s online poker rooms in New Jersey, the WPT, and the Borgata.
Even the addition of 25 “amateur” qualifiers could turn around the WPT Championship’s fortunes, since that could become 50 qualifiers in 2015, and for every qualifier you will attract even more pros. If the move works, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that attendance could be up this year, and up by a significant amount next year.
The Big One for One Drop (June 2014)
In 2012 the Big One for One Drop surprised us all, easily hitting the 48-player cap imposed, and turning into the biggest spectacle poker has ever seen; the poker world literally stopped wverything it was doing when this Big One for One Drop got underway.
But, is the idea of a $1,000,000 buy-in tournament held every two years viable? We will find out this summer when the Big One for One Drop returns to the WSOP, this time with a 56-player cap.
The WSOP Main Event (July 2014)
The WSOP Main Event is to poker tournaments what PokerStars is to online poker; there is the WSOP Main Event and then there is everything else.
The perception of the poker economy is largely based on the attendance of the WSOP Main Event, so it goes without saying that this is the most important tournament of the year.
The WSOP APAC Main Event (October 2014)
2014 is probably going to decide whether the WSOP APAC returns in 2016 or simply goes the way of the dodo, or perhaps morphs into a non-bracelet series. The 2013 WSOP APAC had pretty paltry attendance numbers, and in my opinion was only saved by Phil Ivey winning a bracelet and Daniel Negreanu winning the Main Event.
The expansion hopes of the WSOP is relying on their newly formed tandem of the WSOP APAC and the WSOP Europe, considering the attempts at launching the WSOP Circuit, and the WSOP Africa have not lived up to the original expectation –neither has the WSOP Europe, which has seen little growth in its six year history.
If the 2014 WSOP APAC doesn’t prove it can be a “destination tournament series” I have a feeling it will be described as the “short-lived WSOP APAC” in the coming years.
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