More than 8,000 players have entered the “Monster Stack”, which debuted at the WSOP this year. Due to the number of players that have registered to play in the Monster Stack event, a second starting day was added on the fly in order to be able to accommodate for more players.
It was expected that there could be 3 or 4,000 players playing in the event but the amount of interest it has generated has been unbelievable, and puts to rest any suggestion that poker is “dying”.
The huge amount of interest for this event has seen the Rio cancel their regulated cash games in the Pavilion Room as well as the Rio Poker Room in the main area of the casino.
In total, the $1,500 buy-in “Monster Stack” no-limit hold’em event drew exactly 7,862 entrants, which is the second-largest live tournament field of any WSOP event when you look at unique entries (not considering re-buys or re-entries). The only other event at the WSOP that has surpassed this number was the 2006 $10k buy-in main event, which attracted more than 8,700 players. This is a record that still stands to this day.
At the start of this summer, the WSOP hosted another $1,500 buy-in event called the “Millionaire Maker,” with seven-figures guaranteed to the winner. This tournament had 7,977 entrants in total, but this takes into account all of the re-entries. Players that busted on Day 1 were allowed to buy back in on Day 2.
As you can imagine, a lot of WSOP veterans that have been grinding WSOP events this summer are taking part in the Monster Stack event, and despite the huge number of first timers playing in the event, which is understable considering the enormous size of the prize pool, there was also a fair share of familiar names seen at the tables, including Faraz Jaka, Joseph Cheong, Max Silver, Mario Ho, Ole Schemion, Sofia Lovgren, 2013 WSOP main event champion Ryan Riess, and Vanessa Rousse. As a result, there has been a lot of buzz on twitter and other social media from established pros playing in the Monster Stack.
Due to the number of entrants and the deep stack structure of this debut WSOP tournament, many players are liking it to the main event, and would no doubt be playing it as a warm up to the big one. All players started with 15,000 in chips, with the blinds at 25-25 and no ante for the first blind level. It does not play exactly the same as the main event at the WSOP, though, because the blind levels come around twice as quickly. That said, it still allows for plenty of poker to be played, which along with the huge prize pool of $10.6 million, is probably a big reason for the tournament attracting so much interest.
The first flight accommodated for 4,020 players, and so 3,842 players came to compete on the second flight day. From the 7,864 players to have started the event, that number has dwindled down to the 576 players, so there is still a lot of play to be had in Event #51: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em Monster Stack.
With 792 players guaranteed a payday, they are already in the money, so the eliminations should start to increase, but you can bet that all of the remaining players will have their eyes set on the first place prize money. The winner takes home an incredible $1,327,083.