Hmmm I wonder if the top players are a little frustrated with all the internet donks
I mean it doesn't matter how good a poker player you are, it's hard to wade through 6000 internet qualifying donks ! Part of me thinks the world series of poker should be for the best poker players in the world to compete against each other and not just an open free for all so to say. Another part of me thinks anyone who wants to should be able to have a shot at it. I do think making people buy-in themselves will drastically reduce the entrants and they'll get only "serious" players which is what they want I guess.
Even without thousands of extra playes the world series can be very crap shooty as it is as blind levels go up quickly and it doesn't leave an awful lot of room for actual poker to be played. With numbers of a couple of thousand it's almost impossible for this not to be the case, nevermind 8000 odd. I think quite a few people have complained about this before.