The Monster Stack’s monster field has, after four long days, finally been subdued.
Mitchell Towner, a professor at the University of Arizona, took down the beast and $1.1 million payday. And it’ll be a while before another massive field floods the Rio's hallways and arteries.
The Colossus II, the Millionaire Maker and the Monster Stack all drew a massive amount of players this summer.
More than 35,000 players played those tournaments and only three won bracelets. Together, they all shelled out nearly $30 million.
All the tournaments drew a global field. Nearly 100 different countries participated and while some nations only had one entry to hang their national hopes on, others had thousands.
Well, only two did.
The Breakdown
The vast majority of the players that registered and cashed were from the United States. Out of the 35,560 entries, 83 percent of them were from the United States.
Canada came a pretty distant second with 1,495 players, just 4.2 percent of the field.
The United Kingdom was the only other country to join them past a full percentage point and the rest of the 90ish countries are in fractions of a percent.
The same is true for proportions of players that cashed, but when we start looking at the rate players cashed, different countries emerge.
The average rate that players from countries with more than 10 entrants cashed was 14.91 percent.
If we bump the number up to a minimum of 25 entries, then the average was 16.05 percent.
Cash Rate by Country
The United States, Canada and the United Kingdom all fell below that threshold. US players cashed at a rate of 13.71 percent while Canadians were at 14.31 percent and British players were 13.82.
If we drop the requirement to 10 again, the worst performing countries were Turkey and Barbados.
Barbados had 14 entries and Turkey had 12, neither saw a player cash. Back at 25 or more, Singapore is scraping the barrell at 6.25 percent.
About a third of South Africa and South Korea’s 12 and 13 entrants made it into the money, but on the whole, European countries performed consistently well.
Austria, saw a 31 percent cash rate out of 128 entrants. Bulgaria was next with a quarter of its 61 entrants making the money.
The European Cash Rate
Italy also had a strong performance with 31 out of 131 cashes. Wee Belize led the Americas with a 13-3 run while Argentina came in second with 16 out of its 75 players cashing.
Lower buy-in, large prize pool tournaments tend to draw more local and recreational players. It’s probable that players travelling all the way from Europe will on average be more experienced and financially invested in the WSOP.
These tournaments are too good a value to pass up, especially if you think you have an edge over the field.
The $565 Colossus buy-in attracts a lot of first-time and bucket-list WSOP players. It’s easier to take a shot at a million bucks if you're driving from California or taking a few days off from your Uber job.
The Colossus had the highest percentage of US players with 87 percent, 8 points higher than the Monster Stack.
The biggest state contributor was California. Nearly a quarter of the 18,606 US players came from the Golden State. Nevada came in second, contributing 13 percent of the field.
Colossus Entry by State
Every state contributed some players, but Delaware was the only state without a cashing player. There were six entries from Delaware and none of them made it to the money.
Hawaii and Alabama had the highest cash rate and Washington, New York, Minnesota and New Jersey all cashed at a rate of about 16 percent. Nevada on the other had a less than average cash rate of about 10 percent.
State-by-State Cash Rate
How did your country do?
