Iggy’s post got me wondering how the $10,000 WSOP Main Event buy-in has compared against inflation over the years, so I found a conversion table and created this spreadsheet.

I guess it’s not so surprising that the Plaza’s $50,000 buy-in event only had 11 entrants, since that’s comparable in today’s money to the $10,000 buy-in back in 1972.

Year CF* Buy-in Buy-in
(2005$)		 Winner
($)		 Winner
(2005$)		 Field Prize Pool
($)		 Prize Pool
(2005$)
1970 0.201 ** ** ** ** 7 ** **
1971 0.209 5,000 23,900 30,000 144,000 6 30,000 144,000
1972 0.216 10,000 46,300 80,000 370,000 8 80,000 370,000
1973 0.230 10,000 43,500 130,000 565,000 13 130,000 565,000
1974 0.255 10,000 39,200 160,000 627,000 16 160,000 627,000
1975 0.278 10,000 36,000 210,000 755,000 21 210,000 755,000
1976 0.294 10,000 34,000 220,000 748,000 22 220,000 748,000
1977 0.313 10,000 31,900 340,000 1,086,000 34 340,000 1,086,000
1978 0.337 10,000 29,700 210,000 623,000 31 310,000 920,000
1979 0.375 10,000 26,700 270,000 720,000 54 540,000 1,440,000
1980 0.426 10,000 23,500 385,000 904,000 73 730,000 1,714,000
1981 0.470 10,000 21,300 375,000 798,000 75 750,000 1,596,000
1982 0.499 10,000 20,000 520,000 1,042,000 104 1,040,000 2,084,000
1983 0.515 10,000 19,400 580,000 1,126,000 108 1,080,000 2,097,000
1984 0.537 10,000 18,600 660,000 1,229,000 132 1,320,000 2,458,000
1985 0.556 10,000 18,000 700,000 1,259,000 140 1,400,000 2,518,000
1986 0.567 10,000 17,600 570,000 1,005,000 141 1,410,000 2,487,000
1987 0.587 10,000 17,000 625,000 1,065,000 156 1,560,000 2,658,000
1988 0.612 10,000 16,300 700,000 1,144,000 167 1,670,000 2,729,000
1989 0.641 10,000 15,600 755,000 1,178,000 178 1,780,000 2,777,000
1990 0.676 10,000 14,800 895,000 1,324,000 194 1,940,000 2,870,000
1991 0.704 10,000 14,200 1,000,000 1,420,000 215 2,150,000 3,054,000
1992 0.725 10,000 13,800 1,000,000 1,379,000 201 2,010,000 2,772,000
1993 0.747 10,000 13,400 1,000,000 1,339,000 220 2,200,000 2,945,000
1994 0.766 10,000 13,100 1,000,000 1,305,000 268 2,680,000 3,499,000
1995 0.788 10,000 12,700 1,000,000 1,269,000 273 2,730,000 3,464,000
1996 0.811 10,000 12,300 1,000,000 1,233,000 295 2,950,000 3,637,000
1997 0.830 10,000 12,000 1,000,000 1,205,000 312 3,120,000 3,759,000
1998 0.843 10,000 11,900 1,000,000 1,186,000 350 3,500,000 4,152,000
1999 0.861 10,000 11,600 1,000,000 1,161,000 393 3,930,000 4,564,000
2000 0.890 10,000 11,200 1,500,000 1,685,000 512 5,120,000 5,753,000
2001 0.916 10,000 10,900 1,500,000 1,638,000 612 6,120,000 6,681,000
2002 0.930 10,000 10,800 2,000,000 2,151,000 631 6,310,000 6,785,000
2003 0.951 10,000 10,500 2,500,000 2,629,000 839 8,390,000 8,822,000
2004 0.977 10,000 10,200 5,000,000 5,118,000 2,576 25,760,000 26,366,000
2005 1.000 10,000 10,000 10M? 10M? 6,000** 60M? 60M?

Notes:
* — Conversion Factor
** — The players voted on the winner this year.

The WSOP was a winner-take-all event from 1971 until 1978. In 1978, the winner received 2/3 of the prize pool. This was reduced to 50% from 1979 through 1985, then reduced again to 40% from 1986 through 1990. Starting in 1991, first place prize money was set at $1 million until recent years when the size has exploded.

The information in this table was gathered from: