WSOP Sets Main Event Playing On, WPT500 Still Growing

WSOP Main Event Field Begins to Thin

The $10K NLHE World Championship at the 2014 World Series of Poker, better known to most as the Main Event, finished its three starting days on Monday with big numbers. There were 6,683 players and a $62,820,200 prize pool, making it the fifth largest Main Event in the 45-year history of the tournament.

The top 693 players were going to be paid in the end, with $10 million on top for the winner, though payouts wouldn’t begin until later in the week as the field thinned.

Tuesday was Day 2 for the first and second flight players. There were 505 returning from Day 1A and playing in one ballroom, while the 1,428 players from Day 1B took the tables in another two rooms. Martin Jacobson started the day as the chip leader, with Trey Luxemberger close behind.

By the dinner break and the end of Level 8, there were still more than 1,250 players remaining in total. Jacobson remained at the top of the leaderboard, but Joe Kuether was climbing quickly.

Among the players who departed early in the day were WSOP Player of the Year contenders George Danzer and Brandon Shack-Harris.

WPT500 at Aria Continues to Impress

The World Poker Tour was at the Aria Resort & Casino in Las Vegas with a Main Event alternative. The WPT500 offered a $565 NLHE tournament with reentries allowed each day, one per player per day, even if they finished the day in the money or with chips. The guaranteed prize pool was $1 million, and there were six starting days.

Day 1A brought in 443 players and finished with just 22.

Day 1B added another 366 entries and stopped with 18.

Day 1C had 457 players show up with 22 of them surviving the day.

Day 1D was the largest thus far and brought in 780 entries, ending the night with 36 of them.

Day 1E was on Tuesday and added another 879 entries. The plan was to finish the night with 44.

As of Monday night, the chip leader was still listed as Messadek Soufiane with 1,143,000 chips from his Day 1B flight.