Bodog Beat

The field for the 2008 WSOP looks like it could be larger than last year's, but we don't really know. (Bodog Beat Image)

The relative success of each year's World Series of Poker is usually measured by the number of participants in the Main Event, and this year, obviously, is no different. After a drop in attendance last year (down about 3,000 from the year before), all eyes were on the numbers to see if the "poker boom" had made an LL Cool J-style comeback to get closer back to its peak number from 2006.

Well, the official number has been released for Day 1C, 1,928, which gets added to the 1,297 for Day 1A and the 1,158 for Day 1B for a total number of 4,383 for these three starting days. Still almost exactly 2,000 below the 6,358 that came out for the 2007 WSOP Main Event. Now, each starting day has a max capacity of 2,500, so the possibilities here are endless. However, the last guesstimate number we heard was just over 6,300 and the number still has time to rise since Harrah's just announced that they would keep registration open until the second level of tomorrow's play.

What we're really trying to say here is that we have no idea whether this year's number will exceed last year's or not, and and we won't know for at least another 20-odd hours. So, that just means you'll have to keep coming back here for our 2008 WSOP live updates to see what unfolds and what it will mean