The World Series of Poker officially began Tuesday with a $25,000 buy-in heads-up no limit tournament. Because of Black Friday, many were expecting a low turnout for most of the series. This event would have plenty of players, however, with 128.
The whole prize pool reached the $3 million mark. Awaiting the winner was $851,000 of it!
As most poker players are well aware, the World Series of Poker will end with the $10,000 buy-in Main Event. Many officials are curious about if there will be a great decline in participation. High stakes poker player Daniel Negreanu seems optimistic tweeting “WSOP is very special, and I can’t wait to get started on the grind.”
This year new faces will be seen, of course, and one player is Daniel Cates. Cates, known as “jungleman12” online, is finally of age and bought into the heads-up challenge. He admits the field this year is tougher most likely due to the recent indictments.
So on a positive side there will be some new faces in the series. Sure some may stop playing after having most of their bankrolls stuck online, but there is still hope this year could bring new and different competition. Not necessarily by having less players, but also some new online phenoms will be in attendance.
Phil Hellmuth also had some positive things to say about the tournament stating that “it’s still the purest poker festival on the planet.” Most players know this and will continue to do everything in their power to play this year.
So not all is negative when thinking about poker. Come out and support the WSOP this year any way you can!