Rio��s Top 20 Least Attended WSOP Events Are Primarily 2-7 Draw Lowball
On Sunday, the 2018 World Series of Poker Event #23: $10,000 No-Limit 2-7 Lowball Championship got underway with just a dozen players. Of course, that number climbed as players late registered and exercised their single re-entry option. Toward the end of Day 1, the field stood at just 70 entries, though registration remains open until the start of Day 2.
Traditionally, 2-7 lowball events have been among the least attended tournaments of the summer, which isn��t much of a surprise considering it��s a specialty of sorts. Still, what��s to account for the stagnation?
If there��s an expert on 2-7 lowball it��s seven-time bracelet winner and 2006 Poker Hall of Fame inductee Billy Baxter. Five of his bracelets have come in the variant spanning from 1975-1993.
��I��ll tell you why it��s such a small turnout. First off, the people who play this game like to gamble, and for all the big players, this was the game of choice many years ago,�� he said. ��When we were playing a $5,000 buy-in, David Gray won it for $365K. Now they��ve got a $10,000 buy-in and you might be lucky to get out the door with $100K+. That tells you they��ve messed the tournament up really bad.��
Baxter: "We need to talk to them about getting it back to the way it was."
He continued: ��Having said that, now that they��re letting people re-enter once, I think we need to talk to them about getting it back to the way it was and it might be a $1 million prize with a $5,000 entry. Back then it was $5,000 for four hours, you could rebuy anytime you had less than the starting stack, and a double add-on at the end. It was the greatest tournament in the world.��
Baxter also believes the price point plays a big role in the low turnout.
��All the good players don��t even come over and play no more because they can��t win enough,�� he explained. ��The cash games are better, so if they could come play for $1 million they��d be over here instead. They love it, it��s their favorite game. That��s the reason no one is here, it��s too cheap.��
According to Paul Volpe, who topped a field of 87 runners to win the 2014 WSOP Event #13: $10,000 NL 2-7 Draw Lowball for $242,662, another reason is lack of learning opportunities.
��A big part of it is that there is nowhere for the younger generation to practice,�� he said. ��When I was coming up I loved the FTOPS and I��d see a new game. I wanted to get up on the leaderboard so I��d go learn the game playing cash. That��s how I learned. Now there are a lot of young American guys who would love to play mix but there��s just nowhere to play. There��s essentially nowhere to get new people. Who knows if in 10 years this event will still be here.��
Below is a look at the top 20 lowest attended events �C minus the $1,000,000 Big One for One Drops �C since the WSOP relocated to the Rio in 2005.
*Note that while 2005��s Event #39: $5,000 NL 2-7 Draw Lowball technically drew 65 runners, at the time it offered untallied rebuys and a double add-on, which juiced the prize pool to $986,860.
Top 20 Lowest Attended WSOP Events Since 2005
| Tournament | Entries | Winner | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 WSOP Event #39: $5,000 NL 2-7 Draw Lowball | 65* | David Grey | $365,135 |
| 2015 WSOP Event #29: $10,000 NL 2-7 Draw Lowball | 77 | Phil Galfond | $224,383 |
| 2007 WSOP Event #54: $5,000 NL 2-7 Draw Lowball (Rebuy) | 78 | Erik Seidel | $538,835 |
| 2017 WSOP Event #34: $10,000 2-7 Triple Draw | 80 | Ben Yu | $232,738 |
| 2006 WSOP Event #38: $5,000 NL 2-7 Draw Lowball (Rebuy) | 81 | Daniel Alaei | $430,698 |
| 2015 WSOP Event #44: $50,000 Poker Players Championship | 84 | Mike Gorodinsky | $1,270,086 |
| 2008 WSOP Event #18: $5,000 NL 2-7 Draw Lowball (Rebuy) | 85 | Mike Matusow | $537,862 |
| 2013 WSOP Event #43: $10,000 NL 2-7 Draw Lowball | 87 | Jesse Martin | $253,524 |
| 2014 WSOP Event #13: $10,000 NL 2-7 Draw Lowball | 87 | Paul Volpe | $253,524 |
| 2016 WSOP Event #3: $10,000 Seven-Card Stud Championship | 87 | Robert Mizrachi | $242,662 |
| 2017 WSOP Event #72: $10,000 Seven-Card Stud Championship | 88 | Mike Wattel | $245,451 |
| 2015 WSOP Event #27: $10,000 Seven-Card Stud | 91 | Brian Hastings | $239,518 |
| 2016 WSOP Event #55: $50,000 Poker Players Championship | 91 | Brian Rast | $1,296,097 |
| 2017 WSOP Event #22: $10,000 NL 2-7 Draw Lowball | 92 | John Monnette | $256,610 |
| 2009 WSOP Event #49: $50,000 World Championship H.O.R.S.E. | 95 | David Bach | $1,276,802 |
| 2017 WSOP vent #26: $10,000 Razz Championship | 97 | James Obst | $265,138 |
| 2016 WSOP Event #16: $10,000 NL 2-7 Draw Lowball | 100 | Jason Mercier | $273,335 |
| 2016 WSOP Event #20: $10,000 Razz Championship | 100 | Ray Dehkharghani | $273,338 |
| 2017 WSOP Event #62: $50,000 Poker Players Championship | 100 | Elior Sion | $1,395,767 |
| 2010 WSOP Event #19: $10,000 NL 2-7 Draw Lowball | 101 | David Baker | $$294,321 |
