The final starting flight of the World Series of Poker Main Event is typically the busiest. However, with that final starting flight accompanying July 4 parties, numerous anticipated a frustrating turnout this year.
They were wrong. The World Championship had its busiest beginning day in its four-decade history. As lots of as 4,571 people showed up on Wednesday at Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino, to defeat last year’s record of 4,262 Day 1C contenders. While the specific variety of individuals that made it via all levels arranged for the day wasn’t immediately available at the time of writing, WSOP stated that there were approximately 3,500 individuals to bag as well as tag for the night.
This year’s field of the world’s most prominent No-Limit Hold’em tournament counts 7,874 participants and is the second largest in World Series of Poker history. A prize pool of $74,015,600 was produced over the occasion’s three starting flights. The remaining hopefuls will certainly hence contend for a first-place reward $8.8 million in addition to for a shiny gold bracelet, recognized to be one of the most desired non-monetary reward in poker, and of course the WSOP Main Event Champion title.
The event’s third starting flight kicked off at 11 am local time at the host casino and attracted more than 4,500 players of various nationality and of various level of poker experience. The Day 1C survivors will certainly return at the poker tables for Day 2C on Friday, July 5.
Some prominent poker pros also participated in Day 1C action and managed to make it through. Phil Ivey, Patrik Antonius, who made his Main Event return after missing the event for 6 years, Loni Harwood, and three-time WPT champ Chino Rheem were among the notables who will return at the host casino on Friday.
“It felt very special to be back,” said Antonius. “I got in after the dinner break, brought a lot of action to the table and managed to get some big hands. It was great to see so many poker players I have not seen in so long. I am very tired and going to rest for a while after this.”
There were also plenty of former WSOP Main Event champions including Phil Hellmuth, Jonathan Duhamel, and Joe Cada also joined the Day 1C field and bagged for the night. It is interesting to note that Hellmuth made quite an entrance into this year’s edition of the tournament. He arrived at the casino driving a chopper and wearing a Marvel’s Thor costume. He was flanked by a group of models scantily clad in Wonder Woman costumes.
This was not the very first time that the record-breaking champion of 14 WSOP gold bracelets made a grand entrance into the World Championship. In 2009, Hellmuth channeled Julius Caesar for his arrival for the tournament.
Main Event action is set to resume today at the host casino when the Day 1A and 1B survivors will return to fight for a seat into Day 3.
