Locations for poker championship set

Friday, May 21, 2004 | 10:48 a.m.

Harrah's Entertainment Inc. expects to hold the final round of next year's World Series of Poker main event at Binion's Horseshoe, with the rest of the event held at the company's Rio hotel-casino, Harrah's officials said Thursday.

Harrah's had previously said it would hold the event at the Rio, but Mayor Oscar Goodman urged the company to reconsider. The mayor's comments came during a March vote in which the Las Vegas City Council approved an ownership and liquor license transfer of the Horseshoe.

At least 2,000 players are expected to sign up and play during the main event of the 2004 World Series of Poker, a $10,000 buy-in game of no-limit Texas hold 'em that begins Saturday and runs through May 28, event spokesman Nolan Dalla said. About 840 people gambled for the top prize last year, he said.

The prize pool for the main event is estimated at $21 million, while the total prize pool for all events at the World Series is about double that, he said.

Tournament organizers originally projected more than 1,000 players and a prize pool of at least $10 million for the final event.

To handle this year's crowd, organizers split gamblers into two groups, with half playing Saturday and the other half starting on Sunday. The casino has space for about 1,000 gamblers at any one time.

The popularity of poker television shows as well as the rise of Internet poker rooms has fueled unprecedented interest in the game, organizers say.

Many players this year will come from Internet "satellite" games where gamblers have won a seat at the tournament.

Poker Web site PokerStars.com said today it had qualified 315 players for the main event.

Past years have produced instant millionaires but this year will produce several, with the top four finishers in the tournament winning at least $1 million, Dalla said. The winner of the final game is expected to take away from $4 million to $4.5 million, he said.

Last year's champion, Chris Moneymaker, won $2.5 million.