After months of satellite tournaments online, poker cruise championships, land casino competitions and tons of media coverage the biggest event in international poker has started, and with some surprising results in the first rounds.
The winner can expect a first place prize jackpot of roughly $7.5 million, and as the World Series of Poker nine-day championship clicked slickly into gear Thursday last week at the Rio, Las Vegas the plan was to hold three preliminary rounds with 2 000 competing players per round.
Each player (or sponsor) has paid a $10,000 buy-in, so the World Championship no-limit Texas hold’em event is expected to have the richest prize pool in the tournament’s 36-year history.
The organisers anticipated that by Tuesday this week, the field will have been reduced to between 200 and 400 players.
WSOP this year is accommodated in a specially built 20,000-square-metre or more poker room inside the Rio’s convention centre. The final two days scheduled for this Thursday and Friday will be held at Binion’s.
The 36th World Series of Poker has been the most popular ever, with nearly 20,000 participants taking part in 41 events before the world championship match and a prize pool exceeding $50 million. Last year, a record 14,054 players, including a record 2,567 in the world championship event, took part in the World Series.
World Series officials have said the total jackpot purse in 2005 would exceed $100 million.
The massive growth in poker playing and interest at all levels forced Harrah’s Entertainment, which purchased the World Series brand last year, to move the event away from its downtown home at Binion’s into its new location at the Rio.
World Series of Poker Director of Operations Gary Thompson gave a perspective on this massive growth when he said, “….the ninth-place finisher will win $1 million. In 1991, the world champion, Brad Daugherty, was awarded $1 million.”
During the 41 events that began in early June and that preceded the world championship match, the World Series has had some memorable moments.
The only living two-time world champions, Johnny Chan and Doyle Brunson, won a preliminary event four days apart and each earned their record 10th gold bracelets, coveted jewelry that is presented to each World Series event winner along with the cash prize.
Actress Jennifer Tilly captured national media exposure by winning the ladies championship, a no-limit hold’em event, and the $158,335 first prize. Unfortunately, she was knocked out in the first round Thursday.
Brunson’s son, Todd Brunson, won his first World Series championship, and the pair became the first father-son combination to win gold bracelets.
In addition to Tilly, several Hollywood celebrities were expected to play in the world championship event, including actors James Woods and Brad Garrett and actress Shannon Elizabeth (also knocked out in the first round).