On Tuesday, it was announced on World Series of Poker's website that the Main Event's $10,000,000 guarantee, which was introduced in 2014, will be removed. The main reason for this change is that the steep payout structure of last year's Main Event received a lot of critisim from the poker community.
Using the 2014 Main Event entry number - 6,683 entries - the 2015 Main Event payout would look like this.
1st place: $8,000,000
2nd place: $4,663,527
3rd place: $3,500,000
4th place: $2,750,000
5th place: $2,000,000
6th place: $1,500,000
7th place: $1,250,000
8th place: $1,100,000
9th place: $1,000,000
10-12th place: $550,000
50th place: $142,500
100th place: $50,000
500th place: $20,850
693rd place: $16,750 (last year's last paid place)
694-1,000 place: $15,000
In other words, 2014 Main Event winner Martin Jacobson of Sweden would have won $8 million instead of $10 million with the new payout structure, but instead many more players would have received a piece of the prize pool.
"The dream of life-changing money is core to the DNA of the WSOP Main Event and we also want to make it easier to experience playing in poker's Big Show," said WSOP Executive Director Ty Stewart. "Our players understand numbers, and 2015 now presents the best odds ever to leave the Main Event a winner."
