>>Just curious.
>>Do the players play with their own money or is the money from their sponsor?
>>
>>I'm guessing it's their sponsor's money.
>
>The short answer is "it depends".
>
>The large majority of the big name players (touring pros, world-class amateurs and celebrities) are sponsored by their respective online sites (PartyPoker, Full Tilt, Full Contact, AbsolutePoker, Paradise, et al) which provide their buy-ins to the *main event* (USD $10,000). Many non-ranked amateurs still win their main event buy-in from an online or live tournament competition.
>
>However, most people don't realize that the WSOP is a six-week long shindig with HUNDREDS of tournaments and tens of thousands of players, not all of which play the main event -- and most players use **their own money** to pay their way into these other tourneys. In many cases, amateur players will "sell shares" in themselves to finance their tourneys, paying their investors with percentages of the proceeds of their finishes/wins.
>
>Example: this year, I believe there were about 55 "bracelet" events, of varying games and buy-in amounts as cheap as USD $1,500, with the last one being the "main" event. Win any of these events and you win a gold and diamond bracelet proving you're a "WSOP champion". The record for career bracelets won by a single player was set early in this year's WSOP at eleven by Phil Hellmuth, Jr. -- he had been tied with Johnny Chan and Doyle Brunson at ten each.
>
>Curiously, the "main event" wasn't even the most expensive to enter -- that rests with the USD $50,000 event called "HORSE" (you have to play five different games, in rotation: Hold 'em, Omaha, Razz, seven card Stud, and Eights or better) and that bracelet winner is unofficially crowned "world champion all around poker player". There's also (literally) hundreds of "satellite" and "super satellite" events (usually at least four every day) where players can risk as little as USD $200 to try and win their buy-in to any bracelet event, including the main event. In most cases, there's at least three or four different tourneys running simultaneously until you get to the main event, which is about ten days long and runs without anything else in its way.
>
>As an aside, should you reach the high money and/or the final table in a bracelet event, and that event is going to be televised/taped by ESPN, most of the big online sites will pay you to wear their logo gear on camera. Depending on your chip position at the time, your experience level, the type of tourney, and how good a negotiator you are, you can count on receiving offers anywhere from a few hundred dollars to being sponsored for one or more events, including the main event. If you win a bracelet event, you're almost guaranteed a sponsorship for the main event if you want it (of course, with the payouts of most of the bracelet events, you won't need it -g-).


I see.
Is there such thing as TV/Cable revenue sharing as well for players?