“There’s something historic about it being $10K, and I think why mess with that?” “For what? To lower the numbers? We want to give it a chance for everybody. “I don’t see any reason whatsoever to kick it up,” professional poker player Daniel Negreanu said. With so many players able to enter at that price point, some in the poker community wonder whether it’s time for the WSOP to increase the buy-in from $10,000. This year’s No-limit Hold’em World Championship smashed the previous record for largest Main Event field. Times change, though, and so does the value of the dollar. The following year, the buy-in went up to $10,000, and it has stayed there ever since. When the tournament format was instituted in 1971 by Benny Binion, the first Main Event had a $5,000 entry fee, and Johnny Moss earned the winner-take-all prize. The $10,000 buy-in for the World Series of Poker Main Event has been romanticized in film, on television and in print for more than 50 years.īut it didn’t always cost that much to enter. (Madeline Carter/Las Vegas Review-Journal) Dean Hutchison watches a competitor during the World Series of Poker $10,000 buy-in No-limit Hold-em World Championship on Friday, July 14, 2023, at Horseshoe Las Vegas in Las Vegas.