BY TOM SOMACH

A total of 6,358 people entered the main event of the 2007 World Series of Poker (WSOP) in Las Vegas, WSOP officials reported.

The number of entrants is down 28% from last year’s main event, which a record 8,773 people entered.

The final tally on this year’s number of WSOP main event participants answers a burning question that those in the poker world have been wondering about.

After the U.S. government cracked down on Intenet gambling last year, the powers-that-be that run the WSOP decided they would no longer accept entrants into the main event–or any other WSOP event for that matter–who qualifed by winning online poker tournaments.

The new policy commenced with this year’s WSOP.

Online players have been qualifying for several years.

Of the 8,773 participants in last year’s main event, a great many qualified online.

The main event has a $10,000 buy-in, but online poker players could win online tournaments–that had small entry fees and were sponsored by online poker rooms–and win seats to the main event.

But after the U.S. Congress passed, and President Bush signed, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) last year, which banned U.S. banks and credit card companies from processing transactions involving online gambling sites, the WSOP acted decisively.

The WSOP, fearing legal recriminations from the U.S. government if it were involved in any way with online poker, decided no longer could anyone qualify for a WSOP event by winning an online “satellite” or qualifying tourney.

The decision meant that no longer could there be another Cinderella story as there was in 2003, when an unknown redneck accountant named Chris Moneymaker won a $39 buy-in online poker tourney run by Poker Stars (www.pokerstars.com) and was rewarded with a free seat in the WSOP main event, which he then won.

The incident is credited with sparking the worldwide boom in Internet poker.

As part of its response to UIGEA, the WSOP also banned online poker rooms from sponsoring the WSOP or any WSOP-related events.

The number of participants in the WSOP main event has increased each year since 1992.

But this year’s decrease–and the shocking news that for the first time in 15 years the main event had fewer participants than the year before–does not shock the WSOP, which was expecting a drop-off after banning online qualifiers.

“Whether it’s 4,000; 6,000; 8,000 or 10,000; this will still be the biggest, richest, most prestigious poker tournament in the world,” WSOP commissioner Jeffrey Pollack said.

“Whoever wins will walk away a multi-millionaire, lives will be changed and some great poker will be played,” he added.

Because the number of participants in the WSOP main event is down, the winner this year will take home “just” $8.25 million, about a third less than the record $12 million won last year by Jamie “Good As” Gold.

The next 620 finishers will split the remaining $51.5 million of the prize pool, with each getting at least $20,320.

(E-mail Tom Somach at tomsomach@yahoo.com.)