As my colleague Earl Burton reported yesterday, the 2016 World Series of Poker $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em Championship Event, better known as the Main Event, needed nearly 4,000 players to belly up to the tables on Monday’s final starting flight in order for the total field to eclipse last year’s number of 6,420 entrants. Not a problem. 4,240 players signed up for Day 1C of the Main Event, making it the largest field to populate the poker room in a single day in the tournament’s history.
The total player count ended up to be 6,737, making this the largest Main Event since 2011, when Pius Heinz won. Overall, it is the fifth largest Main Event of all time. The prize pool amounts to $63,327,800, with 1,011 set to get paid, the deepest the Main Event has ever paid. This year’s champion will receive $8 million.
Decatur, Georgia’s Timothy Sheehan dominated Monday, finishing Day 1C with 394,100 chips, over 100,000 more than his closest competitor. He also holds a sizable led on the entire surviving field of 5,500 players, with Gary Sewell trailing him holding 312,500 chips.
Sheehan has cashed once at the 2016 WSOP, earning $2,250 for a 1,065th place finish in the $1,500 Millionaire Maker event. He also has three other World Series of Poker cashes in his career. He has only (I say “only” like I could do better) earned about $46,000 in live tournaments, most of that coming from a 263rd place finish in the Main Event a year ago, so another deep run this year would boost his winnings significantly.
A number of former Main Event champs made it through Day 1C, including defending champion Joe McKeehen, Ryan Reiss, Joe Hachem, Phil Hellmuth, Martin Jacobson, Chris Moneymaker, Greg Merson, and Scotty Nguyen.
Also playing on Day 1C was Phil Ivey, who did not play in any of the previous WSOP events this summer. He survived Day 1C, but he is holding on by a thread with just 26,100 chips. Other big names making it to Day 2C are Daniel Negreanu (who is in even worse shape than Ivey), Fedor Holz, John Juanda and Joe Cada.
Monday was the last of the three starting flights of the Main Event. Today, the survivors from Days 1A and 1B will return to the Rio for Days 2A and 2B. Though they will all be there at the same time, each field will be separate, so players in Day 2A will not be competing directly against those in Day 2B. The players who remain from Monday’s Day 1C will play in Day 2C tomorrow. After that, everyone who still has chips will come together in a single field starting on Day 3.
2016 World Series of Poker Event #68 – $10,000 No Limit Hold’em Championship Event – Day 1C Chip Leaders
1. Timothy Sheehan – 394,100
2. Adam Krach – 293,800
3. Sergi Reixach – 265,400
4. Benjamin Vinson – 256,700
5. Francois Safieddine – 224,300
6. Danny Boyaci – 217,500
7. Brendon Rubie – 211,200
8. Bowdy Tolhopf – 208,800
9. Doug Kim – 208,200
10. Dejan Pustoslemsek – 207,000
2016 World Series of Poker Event #68 – $10,000 No Limit Hold’em Championship Event – Combined Day 1 Chip Leaders
1. Timothy Sheehan – 394,100
2. Gary Sewell, 312,500
3. Alvaro Lopez, 306,200
4. Adam Krach – 293,800
5. Andrey Zaichenko, 292,700
6. Kenny Hallaert, 269,400
7. Sergi Reixach – 265,400
8. Benjamin Vinson – 256,700
9. Scott Neuman, 226,000
10. Francois Safieddine – 224,300