Colossus II Not Quite As Colossal

7 years ago
Colossus II Numbers
11:33
07 Jun

Last year, the World Series of Poker wanted to host the largest live poker tournament in history so they created a special event affordable for all. That’s how Colossus was born, becoming the event with the lowest buy-in in WSOP history, just $565. Since it had multiple flights - four to be precise, the first ever Colossus exceeded everyone’s expectation: it did become the largest poker tournament ever played with 22,374 total entries shattering the previous record held by the 2006 WSOP Main Event (8,773 entries). The event also became the first ever live poker tournament to get past the 10,000- and 20,000-entry hurdles.

For this year, the WSOP wanted to set the bar even higher so they increased the guaranteed prize pool from $5 million to $7 million including $1 million for the winner and they also increased the number of starting flights from four to six. To make things even spicier and much more simple from a logistic point of view, WSOP moved the money bubble from Day 2 to each of the starting flights.

But did it it work? Did this year’s Colossus defeat its own alter ego from 2015? Unfortunately, it did not! Colossus II couldn’t surpass the 22,374 mark and recorded a total of 21,613 entries, 761 entries less than in 2015. It did however became the second largest live poker tournament and only the second to have five-digit entries. And that’s not all.



Most Cashes In Poker Tournament History

Because of this year’s WSOP changes - 15% of the participants cash in compared to just 10% in the previous years - Colossus II became the poker tournament with the largest number of players in the money IN HISTORY. No less than 3,245 players will cash in between $2,200 and the grand prize of $1 million guaranteed to the winner.

Interestingly enough, since players could re-enter up to five times if they failed to advance initially, one entry per starting flight, there were several participants who cashed in multiple times. According to the WSOP Twitter account, John Marlowe set the record for this edition cashing in four Day 1s. 13 other players cashed in on Day 1 three times.

Like last year, the total prize pool shattered the guaranteed with more than $3.8 million up to $10,806,500.


More Interesting WSOP Colossus II Facts

  • Day 1E was the starting flight with most entries (4,855) while Day 1B was the flight with fewest entries (2,153).
  • 9,900 players re-entered at least once, 5,191 registered twice, 2,525 registered three times, 1,296 registered four times, 620 registered five times while 268 registered six times.
  • 89 countries were part of the Colossus II the most participants coming from the US obviously (18,704). Canada had 801 players good for second while UK completed the podium with 408 players.
  • 5.9% from the total field were ladies (1,270).
  • The average age of the field was 41 and the oldest participant was 92 years of age.



The Colossus II Final Showdown Is Tonight

With all those interesting facts and numbers out of the way, there is only one uncertainty: who will win the grand prize of $1 million? After Day 3, only nine remain led by Czech Jiri Horak who has 63 big blinds. Experienced pro from Illinois Ben Keeline is not far behind and will start the final table with 48 blinds.. Keeline is a WSOP Circuit regular with one ring and 16 total cashes. At the WSOP, he cashed in four times including last year, at the first ever Colossus. Richard Carr, Alex Benjamen, Marek Ohnisko, Jonathan Borenstein, Xiu Deng, Farhad Davidzadeh and Christopher Renaudette complete the final table set to start at 2 PM local time (9 PM GMT).

Stay tuned and be sure to check PokerTube regularly in order to find out the outcome of the Colossus II and more interesting news about the 2016 WSOP.


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Florian is a freelance journalist and avid poker player with a strong passion to create unique and appealing stories.He is an experienced researcher on various topics, from business and the financial markets to psychology and the gambling industry.He blogs at Florianghe.com.Read more

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