With 5 weeks of action almost completed in 57 events, fears are fading that US enforcement actions in the online poker environment might negatively impact the World Series of Poker this year.
With the main event still to come, tournament officials have reported that so far there have been 68,807 entries in 57 events – 8.5 percent ahead of the same stage last year and on pace to surpass last year’s record of 72,966.
And total prize money so far of about $127.5 million is also up more than 8 percent from last year.
“Players will chase the action,” says tournament director Ty Stewart. “While it was easy to find action online, the biggest and the best action is in Las Vegas in the World Series of Poker. Whatever bankrolls players had, we saw them bring to Las Vegas this summer.”
The next measure will be the Main Event, so large that its opening day of action will be spread out in four flights Thursday through Sunday. Last year’s Main Event drew 7,319 entries, the second most populated of all time.
This year, the ESPN television will more than double its hours of TV coverage during daily presentations of Main Event play. The hole cards will be shown on a 30-minute delay during six days of coverage July 14-19.
The Main Event will run through July 19 until the field is cut to a final table of nine, as was the case last year. Finalists then will recess and play out the final table November 5-7.
The last competitions prior to the main event continued to play down to winners Wednesday, with Max Lykov winning event 54: $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em after 4 gruelling days of poker against the best the world has to offer.
Lykov started the fourth day Wednesday as chip leader and dominated proceedings throughout a final table that was formed when Mario Doria was eliminated in tenth place.
Lykov and Dror Michaelo between them demolished the final table and were the heads up duo once Lykov eliminated Warren Wooldridge from Britain in third place, leaving Lykov with a 2 to 1 advantage over his heads up opponent.
The Russian pro made sure he leveraged his chip advantage to the full, and the finale was brief and efficient, with Dror Michaelo heading for the cashier to collect his runner-up prize of $401,296 and Lykov celebrating a WSOP bracelet and a $648,880 payday.
Late Wednesday night Vegas time all eyes were on event 55: $50,000 Poker Player’s Championship, because with just three players left Phil Hellmuth was still in the running to get the elusive and record breaking twelfth WSOP bracelet he has been chasing for so long.
At level 26 on the fifth day of this hotly contested competition the field was led by Brian Rast on 8,225,000, chased by Phil Hellmuth on 6,620,000, with Minh Ly bringing up the rear on 4,355,000, with the next player to be eliminated due a third placing prize of $665,763.
The nine players on the final table of this event were decided on the fourth day, and at the start of Day 5 the following highly experienced players took their seats: Minh Ly holding the chip lead on 5.215 million, Brian Rast on 2,660,000, Matt Glantz (2,535,000), George Lind (2,315,000), Phil Hellmuth (2,245,000), Owais Ahmed (1,425,000), Ben Lamb (1,180,000), Jason Lester (920,000) and Scott Seiver (725,000).
The prospect of a winner emerging before midnight Wednesday has a growing number of railbirds gathering to see if Hellmuth can pull this one off against such strong and capable competition.
Event 56: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em started out with 3,389 but by late night Wednesday on the second day of play only 80 remained at level 18, led by Bryn Kenney on 600,000 and Selin Oulmekki (570,000)
Only 463 players survived the first day’s bloodbath at the tables, with Ben Volpe holding the chip advantage and everyone hoping to make position 342 where the cashes started.
Still very active in the field before midnight Wednesday were Brandon Meyers, Gavin Smith and Andrew Lichtenberger.
The winner of this event will take home $777,928.
Event 57: $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo Split entered its second day of action mid-afternoon Wednesday with 173 players returning to the tables and the money bubble due to burst around position 36.
The original field of 352 had been reduced by 179 eliminations by the time the first day was in the books, with Gary Bolden the chip leader and a slew of top players still in contention including Mike Matusow (20,700), Huck Seed (14,400), David ?Doc? Sands (33,600), Erik Seidel (57,500), Allen Kessler (58,500), Chris Bjorin (53,400), David Bach (49,900), Phil Laak (39,400), and Nick Binger (48,400).
Late Wednesday night, level 15 had been reached and just 41 players remained, with the chip lead held by Phil Laak on 330,000, pursued by Bryce Yockey (310,000) and Nick Schulman (300,000)