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 Conversion Factor Buy-in Buy-in in 2005 Dollars First Place Money First Place Money in 2005 Dollars Entrants Prize Pool Prize Pool in 2005 Dollars
 First Place % of Total
1970 0.201 * * * * 7 * * *
1971 0.209 5,000 23,900 30,000 144,000 6 30,000 144,000 100%
1972 0.216 10,000 46,300 80,000 370,000 8 80,000 370,000 100%
1973 0.230 10,000 43,500 130,000 565,000 13 130,000 565,000 100%
1974 0.255 10,000 39,200 160,000 627,000 16 160,000 627,000 100%
1975 0.278 10,000 36,000 210,000 755,000 21 210,000 755,000 100%
1976 0.294 10,000 34,000 220,000 748,000 22 220,000 748,000 100%
1977 0.313 10,000 31,900 340,000 1,086,000 34 340,000 1,086,000 100%
1978 0.337 10,000 29,700 210,000 623,000 31 310,000 920,000 67.7%
1979 0.375 10,000 26,700 270,000 720,000 54 540,000 1,440,000 50%
1980 0.426 10,000 23,500 385,000 904,000 73 730,000 1,714,000 52.7%
1981 0.470 10,000 21,300 375,000 798,000 75 750,000 1,5906,000 50%
1982 0.499 10,000 20,000 520,000 1,042,000 104 1,040,000 2,084,000 50%
1983 0.515 10,000 19,400 580,000 1,126,000 108 1,080,000 2,097,000 53.7%
1984 0.537 10,000 18,600 660,000 1,229,000 132 1,320,000 2,458,000 50%
1985 0.556 10,000 18,000 700,000 1,259,000 140 1,400,000 2,518,000 50%
1986 0.567 10,000 17,600 570,000 1,005,000 141 1,410,000 2,487,000 40.4%
1987 0.587 10,000 17,000 625,000 1,065,000 156 1,560,000 2,658,000 40.1%
1988 0.612 10,000 16,300 700,000 1,144,000 167 1,670,000 2,729,000 41.9%
1989 0.641 10,000 15,600 755,000 1,178,000 178 1,780,000 2,777,000 42.4%
1990 0.676 10,000 14,800 895,000 1,324,000 194 1,940,000 2,870,000 46.1%
1991 0.704 10,000 14,200 1,000,000 1,420,000 215 2,150,000 3,054,000 46.5%
1992 0.725 10,000 13,800 1,000,000 1,379,000 201 2,010,000 2,772,000 49.8%
1993 0.747 10,000 13,400 1,000,000 1,339,000 220 2,200,000 2,945,000 45.5%
1994 0.766 10,000 13,100 1,000,000 1,305,000 268 2,680,000 3,499,000 37.3%
1995 0.788 10,000 12,700 1,000,000 1,269,000 273 2,730,000 3,464,000 36.6%
1996 0.811 10,000 12,300 1,000,000 1,233,000 295 2,950,000 3,637,000 33.9%
1997 0.830 10,000 12,000 1,000,000 1,205,000 312 3,120,000 3,759,000 32.1%
1998 0.843 10,000 11,900 1,000,000 1,186,000 350 3,500,000 4,152,000 28.6%
1999 0.861 10,000 11,600 1,000,000 1,161,000 393 3,930,000 4,564,000 25.4%
2000 0.890 10,000 11,200 1,500,000 1,685,000 512 5,120,000 5,753,000 29.3%
2001 0.916 10,000 10,900 1,500,000 1,638,000 612 6,120,000 6,681,000 24.5%
2002 0.930 10,000 10,800 2,000,000 2,151,000 631 6,310,000 6,785,000 31.7%
2003 0.951 10,000 10,500 2,500,000 2,629,000 839 8,390,000 8,822,000 29.8%
2004 0.977 10,000 10,200 5,000,000 5,118,000 2,576 25,760,000 26,366,000 19.4%
2005 1.000 10,000 10,000 7,500,000 7,500,000 5,619 56,190,000 56,190,000 13.3%

Notes:
* -- 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: