Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Gaming:

World Series of Poker Main Event draws 6,420 players for $60.4 million prize pool

Champion will earn $7.6 million while everyone at the final table secures $1 million

2015 WSOP Main Event First-Day Play

L.E. Baskow

A player’s distinctive hat stands out during first day of play in the World Series of Poker’s Main Event on Sunday, July 5, 2015, at the Rio.

2015 WSOP: Main Event First Day

World Series of Poker's Executive Director Ty Stewart pumps up the players gathers for first day play of the WSOP Main Event with a $10,000 entry fee and an opportunity for millions, poker fame and the winner's bracelet at the Rio All-Suites Hotel and Casino on Sunday, July 5, 2015. Launch slideshow »

Nine poker players will leave the Rio as instant millionaires next week.

Everyone who advances to the World Series of Poker Main Event final table, which will be contested over three nights beginning Nov. 8, is guaranteed $1 million. It’s the first time since 2009 that each member of the “November Nine” pulls down a seven-figure score before the four-month pause to benefit ESPN’s weekly episodes of the action.

The WSOP announced the $10,000 buy-in tournament’s payouts late Tuesday night after registration closed for the final of three straight flights. Over the last three days, a total of 6,420 players entered the Main Event to create a prize pool of $60,348,000.

The lucrative wage for reaching the final table stood out in the middle of a sea of numbers.

But the liberality will also take away from the future champion. The first-place prize of $7,680,021 is the lowest since 2005, when Joe Hachem won $7.5 million, and $1.5 million less than the average over the last decade.

The winner’s share was bound to take a hit ever since the WSOP announced plans to pay a record 1,000 players from this year’s field. Finishers ranging from 649th to 1,000th will earn $15,000.

That means 15.5 percent will get paid, a sizable increase for an event that traditionally only rewarded the top 10 percent. The tournament is expected to reach the final 1,000 sometime early Saturday, on the fourth day of play.

Action will resume daily until next Tuesday when the field is whittled down to nine players regardless of how long it takes. A near $250,000 pay jump — 10th place pays $756,897 — will add drama to an already suspenseful moment of the official final table bubble.

Overall registration was down for poker’s world championship, but not as much as some had anticipated as last year’s event brought only 263 more players. The 2015 Main Event came in ahead of the 2013 edition, which featured 6,352 players.

Michigan professional Ryan Riess won that year for $8.3 million. Riess was one of the chip leaders again Tuesday night when the 2015 numbers were revealed.

The defending champion, Martin Jacobson, was knocked out about an hour before. Jacobson cashed for $10 million, the event’s second-largest prize ever, last year.

The bank account of this year’s winner may not swell as enormously as Jacobson’s, but far more players will walk away with something including as many as ever claiming a million.

Case Keefer can be reached at 948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.

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