Cards are in the Air: Let the Main Event Begin!

For professional players, World Series of Poker represents a month filled with tournaments promising big paydays and prestigious gold bracelets. But for many amateurs, it is just a bunch of events all leading to the one that has started couple hours ago – the Main Event!

Although sometimes disputed, the Main Event of WSOP is widely regarded as the World Championship of Poker, and the winner of this one gets to be called the Champion. It doesn’t matter how many bracelets one had or did not have previous to his victory in the Main, because that’s not how it works. The one who takes down this event will get to be called the World Champion of Poker for a full year, and will be known as the former champion for the rest of his life.

This year’s Main Event comes with a big promise – a payday of $10,000,000 for the winner. This guarantees the second biggest first prize in the history of main events, as Jamie Gold took home $12,000,000 for his victory in 2006. Of course, WSOP organizers are hoping that the promise of the big payday will also attract a big pool of players and possibly eclipse the 2006 record of 8,773 players.

Tonight’s poker festivity was opened by the 2005 winner, Joseph ‘Joe’ Hachem. Before announcing the start of play with the famous shuffle up and deal phrase, Joe greeted all the players and remembered shortly his experience from 2005 when he first sat down to play.

Before it all started our own Laura Cornelius caught up with some of the players to ask them what they would buy if they won the first place, and you can check it out in the video bellow:

The special $10 million prize for the winner celebrates 10 years of the Series in the Rio, after it moved from Binion’s Horseshoe in 2005. The Main Event will feature 3 starting days. Day 1A started tonight, and next two days will take place tomorrow and day after tomorrow. Then players from the first two starting days will combine to play Day 2, while players from Day 1C will play their Day 2 on Wednesday. Finally, all remaining players will come together on Thursday and play down to the final table of nine that is scheduled to be reached on Monday. We will have to wait for the winner however, as the final table will take place in November, on 10th and 11th.

Some of those who took their seats on the Day 1A include Justin Bonomo, Mike ‘The Mouth’ Matusow, Jay Farber, Phil Laak, who dressed especially for the occasion, reigning champ Ryan Riess, as well as Jason Mercier and David Benefield, who experienced a quick exit.

We are in for a week of some exciting poker action as the Series reaches its finale, culminating with a new set of November-Niners. Pros have been running pretty hot this Series, let’s see if it continues in the Main Event.