Wsop Prop Bets
The World Series of Poker is less than a week away, with Event 1, the $500 Casino Employees No-Limit Hold'em tournament, set to begin on Sunday, May 27. As always, Bodog Sportsbook and Racebook and Bovada are opening up markets to bet on, and if you think you can predict turnouts for events, bracelet and money winners, you can win big on the WSOP without ever stepping foot in Las Vegas. Amarillo Slim was one of the great old-school poker players, who won the first of his four WSOP bracelets in 1972. He, too, would bet on almost anything. Perhaps his most famous prop bet was when he challenged Bobby Riggs, a former tennis champ, to a table tennis match. Slim’s one condition was that he could choose the paddles they used.
The world’s biggest poker event is underway. The 2019 World Series of Poker ( WSOP ) began last May 29, 2019, and will run until July 16, 2019. The venue is, as it has been since 2005, the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.
This year’s WSOP is special because it is the 50th edition of the tournament. To celebrate its 50th year, there will be a $50,000 No Limit Hold’em event, the Big 50, a $500 buy-in No Limit Hold’em event with a guaranteed $5 million prize pool and $1 million for the winner. A short deck tournament will also be held for the first time as is a tournament for past WSOP bracelet winners.
Those are just some of the newest events added to the WSOP, which has seen the number of individual tournaments grow steadily since its inception in 1970. This year, there are a total of 89 bracelet events. ( Every event awards its winner a signature WSOP gold bracelet ). But despite the new events added, the highlight of the WSOP is still the $10,000 buy-in Main Event which is the biggest poker tournament of the year and offers a prize pool that reaches tens of millions of American dollars. The biggest-ever WSOP Main Event took place in 2012 with Jamie Gold walking away with $12 million as first prize.
With the WSOP Main Event, it’s not only the poker players who can make money out of the tournament. You can, too, because as the Super Bowl of poker, there are so many bet markets available for the WSOP Main Event. We went to bet-maker Bovada and checked out their poker betting odds. Here are some WSOP Main Event bets which we liked and which we believe are going to cash in. These bets were taken from Bovada as of 6/6/19:
- Over 7,850.5 -135
- Under 7,850.50 -105
Despite online poker slowing downs since the early 2000s, the Main Event has always retained its massive field. And why not? The WSOP Main Event is the richest poker tournament in the world and it just keeps on getting bigger.’
From 7,221 in 2017, the Main Event attracted a total of 7,874 players, making it the second biggest of all-time. The 2006 Main Event stands as the biggest ever thanks to the influx of online players that year. Will this year’s Main Event surpass last year’s mammoth field? It’s always difficult to say but considering that that poker has been trending up over the past year, I think there is a good chance that it’s going to exceed 7,850 entries.
Also, the organizers have ‘tweaked” this year’s Main Event, which could lead to more entries. This year, players will have more time to get in on the action this year as registration has been extended to the start of play on Day 2, which is noontime. There is also a slight increase in chips from 60,000 instead of 50,000 and the utilization of the Big Blind Ante to streamline play are likely going to entice more players to join. Sin City is going to have a wide assortment of poker tournaments on tap this year and all the extra tournaments could feed into the attendance in the Main Event as well.
Prediction: Over 7850.5
Will a Female Win An “Open” Event?
- Yes +300
- No -500
The WSOP is hosting 89 events this year and if the female population continue to make up around 4% of the field, I think there will be at least one. Kristen Bicknell and Maria Ho are on a roll coming to the WSOP so these females are for sure drawing as live as they have in recent years. I would say that there will be two ladies heads up for gold including the Ladies event and yes there will be at least one open event won by a female.
Prediction: Yes
- Yes +550
- No -1000
The only time that there was a woman on the Final Table was more than two decades ago when Barbara Enright won $114,180 for the 5th place back in 1995. But remember that the entrants were 273 back then. Although no woman made it last year despite the mammoth 7,874 total that battled it out, the number for the ladies is expected to increase further in this year’s Main Event. Although history says no, I think it’s due time that we see another female in the Final Table. Who knows, there could be two this year.
Prediction: Yes
2019 Main Event Winner’s Birthplace?
- USA -200
- Europe +300
- Canada +650
- Central or South America +1600
- Australia +2000
- Others +1600
Only five non-Americans have won the Main Event since 2000. Since 2010, only three winners were non-American, the last one was Martin Jacobson in 2014.
Wsop Prop Bets
Prediction: USA
How Many American-born Players Will Be in the Final Table?
- Over 5.5 -120
- Under 5.5 -120
There were six Americans in last year’s Final table. There were five Americans in the November Nine in 2017, 2016 and 2015.
Prediction: Under 5.5
- 29 or older -135
- 28 or younger -105
John Cynn in 2018 and Qui Nguyen in 2016 were over 30 years old when they won at the Final Table. But although two out of the last three Main Event winners were over 29 years old, there were no other above-29 winners since at least since 2010.
Prediction: 28 years or younger
Prop bets (also known as proposition bets) are extremely popular in the poker world and come in all shapes and sizes. These, as you would expect to, include a proposition of some sorts and a bet. I can guarantee that you’ve probably made a proposition bet before and might not have even known it. Ever told your friend “I bet you $5 you can’t eat that whole pizza?’ That is the definition of a prop bet. You proposed that they could or could not do something and agreed to bet money on it.
Prop bets happen year round and sometimes are some of the funniest and strangest things in the world. I’ve seen prop bets about losing absurd amounts of weight, trying to run insane distances, and even one recently where a guy tried to eat $1000 in McDonalds in 36 hours.
Prop bets don’t always have to be silly in nature. A lot of times and especially around World Series of Poker time, these are more “normal” in nature. That is if there is anything normal about betting hundreds of thousands of dollars on whether or not someone can do something.
I want to introduce you to the most popular types of prop bets you see at the World Series of Poker (WSOP). While these won’t involve people eating absurd amounts of McDonalds, they still are for loads of money.
Last Longers
If you’ve ever played tournament poker before, there’s a decent chance you’ve made one of these bets or at least heard about people making these bets. This is a prop bet where two or more players put up money to see who lasts longer in the tournament. The last player standing after every other player in the bet is knocked out is the winner.
Last longers bets have nothing to do with whether or not you make the money in the tournament. If you have a last longer with one other player and they get knocked out first, and you get knocked out second, you still win the bet. The interesting part about big last longers is they can sometimes affect how someone plays certain hands. Imagine if you have a $10k last longer bet and you have a decision on the bubble of the tournament. If cashing in the tournament is only like $1k, you are probably going to opt to take the more passive route to try and win the last longer if your “opponent” in the bet is short stacked.
Personally, I don’t touch last longer bets for this reason. I don’t want there to be anything that might affect me making a decision that will affect whether or not I win the tournament. I would hate having to fold in a spot where I could potentially set myself up to win a tournament just to try and lock up a last longer bet.
Wsop Prop Bets Game
Bracelet Bets
These bets are usually the biggest money bets of the summer, and they usually involve the big names and any young hotshot that’s crushing the game. Bracelet bets come in all shapes and sizes, but the formula is always the same. Can X player win X amount of bracelets or not? You probably think any bet like this is insane for the person betting to win the X amount of bracelets, but surprisingly it is possible. You have to remember that the WSOP has a ton of higher buy-in events that only get a couple hundred players. High stakes players have a strong chance to win a bracelet or multiple bracelets if they’re playing these smaller field tournaments.
Fantasy Draft Bets
These bets might not be classified as prop bets, but I still think they’re fitting to be mentioned here. Every year there is a $25k buy-in Fantasy Poker Player Draft that is held amongst anyone with the cash and desire to buy-in. The premise is simple. Players that are playing in the WSOP are drafted and put onto teams much like they would be in a season long fantasy football draft. Players receive points based on how well their picks do in the WSOP. The player with the most points at the end of the WSOP is the winner.
How to Get Involved in WSOP Prop Bets
Wsop Prop Bets Play
Getting involved in WSOP prop bets is as simple as finding a friend to bet with. There aren’t really any official channels to get involved with prop bets. The only bets that you’re going to find at an established location are going to probably be on who is going to win the final table of the main event. These probably won’t be available this year, though, because those betting lines were set when they were still using the November Nine set up.
Wsop Prop Bets
If you’re interested in the $25k draft, you’ll have to either know someone in the poker world that can connect you or you’ll have to seek out the person that is arranging it. For every other prop bet, that’s up to you and anyone willing to take your action. Just remember, though, if you do choose to make a bet this way that there are a lot of added risks that you’ll run into. There are A LOT of stories about WSOP prop bets that were won and not paid. Buyer beware especially if it’s for a lot of money.