The highlight tournament of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) other than the $10,000 Main Event got underway Sunday as a loaded field of players sat down for Event #46: the $50,000 The Poker Players Championship. The event has not lost its luster after almost a decade, both players and fans consider it the most prestigious title in poker apart from the Main Event, and some even hold it in higher regard than the $10,000 mega-tournament.
The Poker Players Championship began as a $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. tournament in 2006, the idea being that the combination of high buy-in (the highest in WSOP history at the time) and mixed game format would bring out the cream of the crop to play. With the killer field and multiple games, it was thought that the winner would truly be considered the most skilled tournament player, at least for that year.
Fittingly, Chip Reese, the player that many looked up to as the best player in the world at the time and arguably the best poker player in history, won that first $50,000 event after a marathon heads-up match against Andy Bloch. I had the good fortune of being present at that final table; I remember heads-up going so long (it clocked in at a record seven hours and 286 hands) that I had to leave to catch a flight before it was finished. While the crowd naturally thinned out some in the wee hours of the morning, there was still a healthy, enthusiastic gathering in house to watch Reese finally win the final hand.
After Reese’s death in December 2007, a special “David ‘Chip’ Reese Memorial Trophy” was created to go to the winner of the event. The tournament was changed from H.O.R.S.E. to an eight-game rotation in 2010, upon which the name was changed to the Poker Players Championship. Prior to 2012, the final table was solely No-Limit Hold’em in order to appeal to television viewers, but once it was dropped from the broadcast schedule, it switched back to the normal eight-game format.
85 players registered for the 2014 WSOP Poker Players Championship yesterday and just five – Sergii Baranov, Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond, Michael Glick, Vanessa Selbst, and San Shak – busted out. Levels are a long 100 minutes, so only five levels were completed Sunday. Registration is open until the start of Level 7, so it will be a few hours until we know what the prize pool will be. For comparison, last year’s tournament attracted 132 players.
Matt Glantz leads the remaining field with 324,700 chips, but as one would expect with so many great players and mostly fixed-limit games, there is not much separation at the top of the leader board yet. Dylan Linde and Richard Ashby are close behind Glantz with 303,700 and 300,000 chips, respectively.
2014 World Series of Poker Event #46: $50,000 The Poker Players Championship – Day 1 Chip Leaders
1. Matt Glantz – 324,700
2. Dylan Linde – 303,700
3. Richard Ashby – 300,000
4. Shaun Deeb – 282,600
5. Alex Luneau – 273,900
6. Ismael Bojang – 271,400
7. Matthew Ashton – 263,800
8. Michael Mizrachi – 254,900
9. David Benyamine – 246,300
10. Dan Heimiller – 245,800
