The Fun Begins

The World Series of Poker was nuts last year. This year it will be nuttier and bigger than ever.

The 2006 WSOP festivities kicked off this week, starting with the casino employee’s $500 no-limit hold’em event. What was once a small event has now become a 2-day tournament with over 1,200 players and a $127,496 first prize.

And then there is the first “open” event, the $1,500 buy-in no-limit tournament. It sold out. Yes, that’s right. There was no more room for more entrants. In order to accommodate as many players as possible, the WSOP squeeeeeeezed eleven players to a table so that 2,288 could participate. On top of that, there was a list of alternates approximately 500 names deep. Every single table in the “airplane hangar” turned poker room at the Rio was in use. This event has more entrants than all of the Main Events except for the last two.

Three day events used to be unheard of. Now, most of the events will span three days. There is not one event that will start and finish on the same day.

A few interesting notes from the first couple days:

• 2004 WSOP Main Event Champion, Greg Raymer, has shown he is the master of the massive player field, cashing in the $1,500 no-limit event. He has cashed in every WSOP event that has eclipsed 2,000 players. He is still alive entering Day 2.
• The chip leader entering Day 2 of the $1,500 no-limit tournament is Carlos Mortensen, who was actually the first alternate.
• All 500 alternates found their way to the tables within the first couple hours.

This should be fun.