WSOP Main Event participation will exceed 6,000 players
World Series of Poker officials are confident the 2011 Main Event will crack the 6,000-person attendance figure and are cautiously optimistic the mark will near or exceed 7,000.
On Saturday, a starting field of 2,181 players took part in Day 1c in the four-day opening round of the $10,000 buy-in No Limit Hold’em World Championship, far exceeding the 897 players on Thursday and the 978 players in Friday’s attendance.
Tournament officials said pre-registration for Sunday’s final opening round at the Rio already had exceeded Saturday’s mark. The three-day attendance figure was 4,056 players.
While play starts at noon, tournament officials will allow players to sign-up until 4:30 p.m., the time the second level is expected to begin. The late entry would reduce a player’s starting stack of 30,000 tournament chips,
Last year’s Main Event drew 7,319 participants, the second-highest total in World Series of Poker history.
On Saturday, celebrity poker players, Ray Romano and Brad Garrett, stars of the television series “Everybody Loves Raymond,” gave the traditional “Shuffle Up and Deal” kickoff.
Former World Series of Poker bracelet winner Annie Duke helped in the kickoff. Duke, the commissioner of the start-up Epic Poker League, told her followers on Twitter Saturday her new duties would keep her from participating the World Series of Poker’s Main Event for the first time in 17 years.
Romano and Garrett played on Day 1c with mixed success. Romano was eliminated early while Garrett survived and will return Monday with players from Thursday and Saturday for Day 2a.
Among the survivors Saturday was 2010 Main Event champion Jonathan Duhamel. Other former champions moving on to Monday are 2009 winner Joe Cada, 1998 winner Scotty Nguyen, 1995 winner Dan Harrington, 1989 champion Phil Hellmuth Jr., and 1978 champion Bobby Baldwin.
Other well-known players who made the cut include Ted Forrest, Humberto Brenes, J.P. Kelly, Gavin Smith, Phil Gordon, Marcel Luske, Mike Caro, and Daniel Negreanu.
Among Saturday’s notable eliminations included 2003 World Series of Poker champion Chris Moneymaker.
