As the old Mark Twain expression goes, "There are lies, damned lies and statistics."
But what a crazy old coot that guy was!
Everyone knows there's something about cold, hard numbers that's absolutely impossible to discount.
Here's a look at a few of those "unforgiving" numbers for the 2015 World Series of Poker.
The Big Tally
With 6,420 players in the Main Event event the 2015 WSOP topped 100,000 total entrants for the first time in history.
The previous record was set in 2013 with 79,472 players. It's safe to say 2015 absolutely smashes this record.
The Main Event itself, however, has seen several larger fields although the overall drop from last year is about 4%.
The enormous growth of overall Series entrants can mainly be attributed to the new low buy-in tourneys with huge guarantees.
The Colossus alone had 22,374 entrants – over one-fifth of the total entrants this year.
The WSOP will not surpass last year's prize money, though. 2014 set a new record with over $256 Million. This year we're looking at slightly more than $220 Million.
That's still the second-most money ever paid out during one WSOP.
Here's how the numbers have developed over the past decade:
Year
Players
Prize Money
2006
47,936
$151,935,120
2007
54,262
$160,975,944
2008
58,721
$180,780,244
2009
53,948
$165,034,719
2010
71,914
$187,112,855
2011
75,672
$191,999,560
2012
74,763
$222,040,652
2013
79,472
$200,396,048
2014
75,676
$256,214,056
2015
103,062 (est)
$224,086,514 (est)
(*) Prize Money includes fees
Top Countries in 2015
As is the case every year US players took home most of the events, won by far the most money and had the most cashes.
But that should be expected – after all, roughly 90% of all players come from the US.
Eleven other countries managed to sneak at least one victory, most notably the UK and Canada four each.
One country though failed almost epically in the pursuit of a bracelet: France. Six times they made it to the heads up and six times they lost. That's almost like waving the white flag all over again.
Country
Cashes
Money
Gold
Silver
Bronze
United States
8021
$102.269.579,00
47
41
48
United Kingdom
291
$5.929.473,00
4
3
5
Canada
532
$9.597.596,00
4
1
2
Germany
188
$4.244.673,00
3
1
3
Italy
101
$1.439.690,00
2
0
0
Russia
133
$2.878.556,00
1
2
0
Israel
40
$1.765.672,00
1
1
1
Argentina
29
$908.974,00
1
1
0
Brazil
158
$2.159.811,00
1
0
1
Belarus
13
$862.665,00
1
0
1
Japan
42
$586.933,00
1
0
0
Denmark
13
$998.078,00
1
0
0
France
147
$2.827.756,00
0
6
1
Ireland
45
$1.295.195,00
0
3
0
Czech Republic
30
$658.628,00
0
2
0
Ukraine
23
$725.002,00
0
1
1
Australia
83
$892.586,00
0
1
0
Spain
25
$965.581,00
0
1
0
Greece
20
$610.231,00
0
1
0
Colombia
4
$115.739,00
0
1
0
Thailand
3
$700.235,00
0
1
0
Austria
47
$954.265,00
0
0
2
Norway
27
$587.449,00
0
0
1
Philippines
4
$118.712,00
0
0
1
Top Players
Since 1999 at least one player has managed to win 2 or more bracelets.
This year two players (so far) have accomplished this exceptional feat: Max Pescatori (who became the first European player to win 4 bracelets in his career) and Brian Hastings.
Current Player of the Year leader Mike Gorodinsky managed to finish in 1st, 2nd and 3rd place, making him the only player to have three podium finishes this year.
Players that managed to finish in the Top 3 at least twice this year:
Player
Cashes
Money
Gold
Silver
Bronze
Max Pescatori
7
$487.834,00
2
0
0
Brian Hastings
6
$742.331,00
2
0
0
Mike Gorodinsky
7
$1.764.112,00
1
1
1
Benjamin Zamani
5
$668.232,00
1
1
0
Jason Mercier
4
$1.351.930,00
1
1
0
Jeff Madsen
5
$447.863,00
1
0
1
Robert Mizrachi
5
$339.362,00
1
0
1
Brandon Wittmeyer
4
$426.581,00
1
0
1
Daniel Idema
4
$390.267,00
1
0
1
Top Money Earners
Player
Cashes
Money
Gold
Silver
Bronze
Max Pescatori
7
$487,834.00
2
0
0
Brian Hastings
6
$742,331.00
2
0
0
Mike Gorodinsky
7
$1,764,112.00
1
1
1
Benjamin Zamani
5
$668,232.00
1
1
0
Jason Mercier
4
$1,351,930.00
1
1
0
Jeff Madsen
5
$447,863.00
1
0
1
Robert Mizrachi
5
$339,362.00
1
0
1
Brandon Wittmeyer
4
$426,581.00
1
0
1
Daniel Idema
4
$390,267.00
1
0
1
Eli Elezra
7
$245,574.00
1
0
0
Shaun Deeb
6
$562,024.00
1
0
0
Andrew Barber
6
$561,479.00
1
0
0
John Reading
6
$491,940.00
1
0
0
Ben Yu
6
$340,947.00
1
0
0
Jonathan Duhamel
5
$4,030,855.00
1
0
0
Anthony Zinno
5
$1,899,183.00
1
0
0
Phil Hellmuth
5
$998,937.00
1
0
0
Kevin MacPhee
5
$664,634.00
1
0
0
Adrian Apmann
5
$502,033.00
1
0
0
Sam Greenwood
5
$455,679.00
1
0
0
Barry Hutter
5
$370,162.00
1
0
0
Phil Galfond
5
$356,194.00
1
0
0
Konstantin Maslak
5
$292,754.00
1
0
0
Byron Kaverman
4
$1,053,464.00
1
0
0
Justin Liberto
4
$656,959.00
1
0
0
John Gale
4
$322,582.00
1
0
0
William Kakon
4
$239,236.00
1
0
0
Anthony Spinella
4
$235,724.00
1
0
0
Christian Pham
4
$109,875.00
1
0
0
Cord Garcia
3
$655,502.00
1
0
0
Michael Wang
3
$470,755.00
1
0
0
Vasili Firsau
3
$444,637.00
1
0
0
Takahiro Nakai
3
$401,871.00
1
0
0
Quinn Do
3
$328,232.00
1
0
0
Arash Ghaneian
3
$294,476.00
1
0
0
Paul Michaelis
3
$205,210.00
1
0
0
Matt O'Donnell
2
$554,504.00
1
0
0
Thiago Nishijima
2
$554,013.00
1
0
0
Idan Raviv
2
$487,060.00
1
0
0
Upeshka De Silva
2
$435,235.00
1
0
0
Tuan Le
2
$354,784.00
1
0
0
Corrie Wunstel
2
$281,154.00
1
0
0
Matthew Elsby
2
$234,596.00
1
0
0
Gerald Ringe
2
$181,943.00
1
0
0
Benny Glaser
2
$142,205.00
1
0
0
Perry Shiao
1
$1,286,942.00
1
0
0
GPI 2015 WSOP Player of the Year
According to formula provided by the GlobalPokerIndex:
Place
Player
Points
1
Mike Gorodinsky
2157.19
2
Anthony Zinno
1942.72
3
Paul Volpe
1889.46
4
Shaun Deeb
1803.99
5
Brian Hastings
1564.6
6
Ismael Bojang
1563.32
7
Ralph Porter
1548.79
8
Stephen Chidwick
1541.79
9
Eli Elezra
1432.61
10
Jason Mercier
1430.57
11
Mark Radoja
1427.95
12
Olivier Busquet
1395.66
13
Byron Kaverman
1387.42
14
Eric Baldwin
1369.45
15
Andrew Barber
1354.58
16
Phil Hellmuth
1349.26
17
Michael Watson
1309.33
18
Philip Galfond
1305.1
19
Max Pescatori
1301.22
20
Mike Leah
1293.63
21
Jonathan Duhamel
1290.76
22
Kevin MacPhee
1289.23
23
Stuart Rutter
1288.25
24
Benjamin Yu
1279.97
25
Taylor Paur
1276.47
Visit www.pokerlistings.com