Ty Stewart, Executive Director of the World Series of Poker, took to the Reddit streets on Sunday for an 'Ask Me Anything' (AMA) Q&A on the r/poker subreddit.
Amongst the myriad questions asked of him, Stewart's reply to one particular question caught our eye. The question, asked by Reddit user 'ASG_82', read as follows: "Is there a number of bracelet events per year that you would think would be too many/dilute the prestige of winning one?"
In his reply, Stewart stated that he and his team at the WSOP were aware of the potential for dilution and, thus, have been careful to expand the bracelet event schedule in a reasonable fashion. Stewart then went on to suggest a potential solution to the issue – one that could ruffle a few feathers in the community.
Ty Stewart, right, with WSOP legend Doyle Brunson. Jayne Furman
'Retroactive' bracelets
"I'm not sure there's a magic number, but I acknowledge it's getting pretty close. We've tried to be very modest in growth. Only went up 1 this year and a handful year before. It's still statistically harder to win a bracelet than it's ever been," Stewart wrote.
"There's still a ton of events players want on the schedule that we'd like to have but don't offer. We're trying to offer something for everyone. No Limit events for every buy-in, mixed events for every buy-in. Stay true to events offered at the series for decades, but add new popular variants.
"Potentially one day we move to a criteria where an event is only deemed a bracelet retroactively, if it achieves say $1M in prize pool. But right now most of these events that happen during WSOP Las Vegas are all huge in their own right and generating big response from players," he continued.
While it's clear that the WSOP has no current plans to cut back on the number of bracelet events at the moment, it's important to hear that the executive team is aware of the potential issue and actively brainstorming solutions.
Stewart addressed several other topics in the AMA thread, including the WSOP Paradise scheduling conflict with the WPT World Championship, upgrades to the WSOP.com website and the launch of the WSOP+ app, and his favorite WSOP memories. Check out the full thread here.
Additional image courtesy of Jayne Furman.
