The $50,000 Players Championship drew a higher number of entrants, suprising some might say at $50k a pop. However, the fields in some of the lower buy-in NLHE are down by up to 27 percent than last year. Lot's of reasons for this, not only in the U.S. is the credit crunch still biting, but UK, European players have felt the pinch for some time now as well.

Amateur players have less disposable income to spend on travel and tournament buy-ins and walk up for the donkaments is well down on 2009. Apart from the $50K, the only events that saw a significant increase in field size were two of the higher buy-in tournaments offered this week — the $5,000 NLHE Shootout and the $2,500 2-7 Triple Draw. So, it looks like not all the pro's have felt the pinch yet.

A detailed look at the tournament entries in the first ten events:

2010 World Series of Poker tournament entries, Events #1-10

Event #1 – $500 Casino Employees NLHE, 721 players, down 16.7% from 2009 (866 players)

Event #2 - $50,000 Players’ Championship, 116 players, up 22% from 2009 (95 players), down 22% from 2008 **

Event #3 - $1,000 NLHE, 4,345 players, down 27.7% from 2009 (6,012 players)***

Event #4 - $1,500 Omaha 8 or better, 818 players, down 11% from 2009 (918 players)

Event #5 - $1,500 NLHE, 2,092 players, down 25% from 2009 (2,791 players)

Event #6 - $5,000 NLHE Shootout, 358 players, up 27.8% from 2009 (280 players)

Event #7 - $2,500 2-7 Triple Draw, 291 players, up 13.2% from 2009 (257 players)

Event #8 - $1,500 NLHE, 2,341 entries, down 7% from 2009 (2,506 entries)

Event #9 - $1,500 PLHE, 650 entries, up 2.6% from 2009 (633 players)

Event #10 - $10,000 Seven-Card Stud, 150 players, up 5.6% from 2009 (142 players)