WSOP 2015 - Colossus Event Smashing Records

With a $565 buy-in and boasting a huge $5,000,000 guarantee, the Event #5 of World Series of Poker 2015, dubbed Colossus, was expected to smash the records, but even tournament officials are (pleasantly) surprised with what's been going on last couple of days at the Rio.

The first of four starting flights for the Colossus saw approximately 5,300 people gathering at the Rio to chance their luck. Thousands of players descended to the tables, announcing a new record in the making. As expected, only a few hundred of those thousands made it through to Day 2, keeping the dream alive. The estimated number stands at 850 survivors. Some names that found its way into this group are those of Daniel Strelitz, Carl Masters and Alfie Poetra, all three bagging in excess of 100k chips.

Day 1B took place yesterday and it did not fail to meet the expectations either. According to the officials' estimates, the number of participants once again eclipsed the 5,000 mark meaning that, with two more starting flights to go, the tournament has already broken the 10k mark.

Number of survivors from yesterday was somewhat lower than on the Day 1A, and the official (gu)estimate is that 720 of those who took their seats at the Rio yesterday will return for the Day 2 on Sunday. A few names that we will be seeing and hearing about on Sunday are Chris Moorman, Mukul Pahuja, Ronnie Bardah and others. George Danzer, Antonio Esfandiari, Sorel Mizzi and Faraz Jaka are a few names from the other list, as they couldn't secure their seats on Sunday.

Day 1C and Day 1D (final two starting flights) begin today at 10:00 AM and 7:00 PM local time, and once all that is said and done, the official numbers should finally be announced. According to some rumors floating around, there is already well in excess of 20,000 players registered, but we will have to wait and see what the exact number will be just a little while more.

Poker Booming?

The big turnout for the Colossus event echoed as a great news all across the poker world. Thousands of people gathering to play in a single event is quite an indicator that the gloomy prophecies about poker dying slow and painful death don't really have grounds.

WSOP officials and players were equally delighted and a number of them took it to the Twitter to share their thoughts on the tournament. It is clear from some of these tweets that some players were genuinely amazed with the numbers, and they are not the only ones.

Hello 23,000 entrants! Hello biggest poker tourney in history! Hello "Colossus" tourney: 23,000 players signed up, SO FAR! #BOOMPOKER

— phil_hellmuth (@phil_hellmuth) May 30, 2015

Bagged 35,700 in the largest live tourny in poker history. Come back Sunday at 600/1200/200. #Colossus#1bullet

— John Zentner (@StanfordCard) May 30, 2015

Looks like over 20k plyrs for the #Colossus! We start w 5k chips. On first break now, I have 10k+ and climbing! :) pic.twitter.com/wxSsqmmNs9

— Vanessa Rousso (@VanessaRousso) May 29, 2015

Don't remember the last time I played a tournament where I looked at the nearest 10 tables and didn't see one familiar face #wsop#colossus

— Eugene Katchalov (@EugeneKatchalov) May 29, 2015

When you're trying to seat the biggest poker tourney ever, of course you jam 21 tables into the kitchen! #Colossuspic.twitter.com/prz3sWpRTN

— PokerPlayersAlliance (@ppapoker) May 29, 2015