Complete 2007 WSOP stats at the Poker Prof’s World Series of Poker 2007 Information Page. Poker from behind the WSOP Curtain from Dr Pauly of Tao of Poker.
Years ago when Benny Binion was running the World Series of Poker the prize money for the winner of the $10,000 Championship Event would arrive at the final table in a cardboard box carried by a burly gun toting Guardzilla. No fanfare, no blaring trumpets, just a box or two of bricks of hundreds. It was the actual prize pool in cash and the winner could gather it up and walk out the door.
Benny was a master promoter and didn’t put much stock into using anything less than the real thing when he had plenty of the real things. Benny’s unceremonious presentation of the prize was by design an understated bit of marketing magic. Ol’ Benny knew such casual treatment of so much cash would be another of the ‘wow’ factors that keep them talking and playing.
Fast forward to the present. The 2007 WSOP Main Event winner received $8.25 million which was delivered to the TV final table by a parade of suits carrying shiny metal cases ala “Deal or No Deal.” The cash being dumped then carefully stacked and arranged according to the television script and in true Hollywood fashion why use the real thing? The magic of television has been fooling them for decades.
Does anyone really care if it is actually an $8.5 million pile of cash or a pile of cash symbolic of $8.5 million? Probably not; but then again, Benny Binion probably would. The real thing was the stuff that made the WSOP so great. Check it out below.