The World Series of Poker kicked off yesterday with several events, getting started on the multi-day series, offering many tournament with tons of guaranteed prize pools. Of course the big ticket items are the tournaments that offer a coveted gold bracelet, giving the winner bragging rights until next year’s series begins. Below is a recap of the first day’s events to give players insight as to just what can be enjoyed during WSOP game play.
It is a tradition for the WSOP to begin with a Casino Employee’s event. This year the $565 tournament saw a good turnout but was a drop in attendance from last year’s event. The series is open to those who are working in the casino industry, especially those connected to the WSOP. 688 players registered to compete and created a prize pool of $344,000 with 72 players set to earn a cash out. First place will take home $75,704 and a gold bracelet. The tournament continues with players still in the running for the first place prize.
The first event open to the field was the $5000 No Limit Hold’em tournament which had a total of 422 players competing, making the prize pool just over $1.98 million. First place was set to earn just over $466,000, a nice prize for outlasting the field of competitors. Several big name players took place in this event including Jake Cody, Erik Seidel, Jason Somerville, Dan Smith and Maria Ho. 45 players will earn a cash prize after this tournament completes.
The next two events on the schedule take place today with the $1,500 Omaha Hi/Lo and the $3,000 No Limit Hold’em Shootout. The Omaha event is the first event to offer a bracelet in non-hold’em format. Both are set to see a nice player turnout.
On top of the regular buzz of the WSOP, players cannot seem to stop talking about the Colossus event. This event will have a buy-in of $565 and offer a $5 million guaranteed prize pool. This is a massive amount of cash for such a relatively small buy-in. Players competing in this event will want to finish first as the prize for the winner is set at $1 million!
Players are also interested in the online event, #64 on the schedule. This tournament will offer a bracelet and will mark the first time an online event has taken place at the WSOP that offers a bracelet. Players are sure to take part in this event and many lawmakers and operators will be looking at the event as well. By taking into consideration the amount of players competing in the event, it will be a good indicator as to players want for online poker gaming.
Not only can players take part in the online event on the WSOP schedule, but the series is also offering online game play from the venue as well as hotels. The Caesars properties received special permission, as well as the Rio, to be able to be whitelisted to avoid the one IP address per person rule. This will help players to take part in the event as well as play online.
Mobile gaming is now offered by the WSOP since the last series, so players will be allowed to have their mobiles at the table to take part in online game play whenever they like. This is an added bonus, as players can play in-between tournaments or during breaks. This could also give some players an advantage as players who are participating in online game play may become distracted giving others the upper hand!