WPT Getting Old? Festa al Lago Attracts Only 275 Players

[TomasJ]

The global financial crisis is being felt in every corner of the world. This year, the WPT Festa al Lago attracted 275 players, which is 25% less than last year. It was really a sad number for such a glamorous event at the Bellagio, organizers even took late registration, as late of level 9 of play.

Many blame this on the decaying economy but the other side of the story can be that the WPT is just not as popular anymore. In late years the WPT has been completely outclassed by the EPT, a tournament also running at this time of the year. Even though the recent EPT Warsaw attracted 203 players, in general the EPT shows better results than the WPT.

Why is that? Well, mainly I think it is based in the atractiveness of the locations involved as the WPT tends to focus on the same cities in the United States and the events are always somewhat similar. Personally, I think the WPT could do much better if some innovation came to get involved in its production. I mean, WPT prize pools tend to be much bigger than the EPT's but still do not get as many players.

As of the WPT Festa al Lago, some notables still in are Andy Bloch, Chris Ferguson and Todd Doyle Brunson, the three of them have why stacks but made their way to Day 3. On the chip lead there is Jason Somerville with 557,000. The winner of the event will take home $1,218,225.