The first high-stakes event at the World Series of Poker has seen a considerable drop in field size compared to 2025. The third event on the schedule, a $5,000 8-handed no-limit hold’em fell from 673 players in 2025 to 570 this year. It’s a decline of more than 15%.
As a result the prize pool fell from $3.7 million to $2.6 million. The tournament wraps up today with the winner taking home $502,985, compared to $582,008 in 2025.
Tax Issues Could Be A Factor
The drop in entries comes in the first year since the new gambling tax provisions in the One Big Beautiful Bill took effect. The tax and spending law became law in January and only allows 90% tax deductions on gambling losses.
The law creates “phantom income,” meaning a player having a losing year could still be required to pay taxes. As a result, some high-stakes pros may not be playing full schedules this year at the WSOP.
When the government announced the tax change, poker legend Erik Seidel said he’d be considering semi-retirement. This year, he confirmed he was playing a reduced schedule because of the tax ramifications.
“The margins are really, really thin,” he said. “If you’re a professional poker player, you’re not even guaranteed to have a profit at the end of the year. This just creates a situation where it’s really untenable. Even the elite players, they can’t overcome it.”
Federal lawmakers on both sides of the aisle attempted to reverse the changes. However, nothing has succeeded yet. Rep. Dina Titus (D-NV) filed the FAIR BET Act last July. Despite several attempts to pass the bill, it never gained traction. Congress never even voted on it.
Other pros may be in a similar situation as the 10-time bracelet winner, cutting back on volume and focusing on even higher-buy-in events. Seidel’s concerns were echoed by other high-stakes pros when the tax provision came to light.
Has The Re-Entry Bubble Burst?
The poker boom in the early and mid-2000’s brought a ton of new players to the game. It also brought huge field sizes. As the number of new players declined, operators propped up field sizes with the emergence of re-entries.
The $5,000 tournament allowed players two re-entries, which can mask any decline in unique entries.
If uniques start to drop, field size decline will outpace it since each unique player represents multiple entries. Some in the industry have expressed concerns about the growth of these types of events as well as the long length of late registration.
Poker pro Ryan Lapante noted that even some other Las Vegas-area tournaments may see declines this summer. An early event at the Wynn saw a $60,000 overlay.
Might be some big misses this summer if even Wynn is struggling with an 1100 start of series.
This had a true overlay by $60k. pic.twitter.com/ifWybVN57Z
— Ryan Laplante🏳️🌈 (@Protentialmn) May 27, 2026
Other Possible Reasons For Declining Numbers
Another possible reason for the tournament declines could be a general drop in Las Vegas visitation seen in recent months, but that showed signs of an uptick earlier this year.
Some players simply may not see tournament poker as an entertaining activity with the rise of solvers and game theory optimal strategies. The separation between recreational players and pros seems to have grown, and some of those rec players may be staying away.
To some, the game has become more of a mind sport, similar to chess, and competing at a high level means hours and hours of study and practice. For example, Thailand recognized poker as a mind sport when the World Poker Tour inked a deal with the country to run a series there. The International Mind Sports Association also recognized the game as a mind sport in 2024.
With the conflict continuing in Iran, some players may also be concerned about the economy, despite growing stock market numbers in recent weeks. Recreational players concerned about increases in the cost of gas and other products may be less inclined to budget thousands of dollars for poker.
