Amid much fanfare, the 47th Annual World Series of Poker kicked off on Wednesday at the Rio All-Suites Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. The traditional starter for the greatest poker tournament of all time, the $565 Casino Employees Event, has put its Day One action into the history books while the weekend is set to be dominated by “Colossus II.”
The Casino Employees Event featured a twist that, while new for its particular running, is something that has become prevalent in the tournament poker world. Instead of being the traditional freeze-out tournament – one buy-in, one chance to win – the Casino Employees Event featured a single re-entry for 2016. While it might just be an oddity and not at all indicative of what future events at the 2016 WSOP may be like, this year’s Casino Employees Event drew in 731 entries; running last year as a “one entry” event, the tournament drew in 688 singular players.
This year’s tournament also featured a faster structure, meaning that the players were flying out of the Amazon Room at the Rio. The money bubble (110 players will be paid in the tournament) popped after the dinner break, with players such as defending champion Brandon Barnette, the 2007 Casino Employees Champion Eric Narciso, WSOP Dealer of the Year Shaun Harris and occasional poker pro Jason Stern all taking a payday from the event. Of the 23 players that will vie for the title on Thursday, an intriguing story is beginning to emerge.
While Matthew Tyler was atop the standings for most of the day, his attempts to play “sheriff” would cost him a great deal of his stack as Spencer Bennett snuck in at the end of the night to snatch that lead from him. These two men aren’t the story of the tournament, however. That honor would go to the four ladies who are among the top third of the field at the start of play on Day 2. Sitting in second place is Kerry Craigie with her 323,000 in chips, while Australia’s Tanja Vujanic (195K), Amanda Wheeler (182K) and Allison Arvey (164K) are all in the Top Ten and within striking distance.
1. Spencer Bennett, 627,000
2. Kerry Craigie, 323,000
3. Nicholas Sliwinski, 301,000
4. Tanja Vujanic, 195,000
5. Amanda Wheeler, 182,000
6. Eric Stack, 178,000
7. Allison Arvey, 164,000
8. Ashkun Lajevardi, 160,000
9. Tom Ratanakul, 141,000
10. Emmanuel Ravelo, 135,000
The remaining 23 players will reconvene at the Rio at noon to play down to a champion tonight. The first bracelet of the 2016 World Series of Poker will be awarded this evening, along with the $75,157 first place cash.
For those that aren’t casino employees, the “real” World Series of Poker begins today and it begins with a bang. At 10AM this morning, “Colossus II” will take to the felt in all of the tournament arenas of the Rio. With its $7 million guaranteed prize pool and a $1 million prize to its eventual champion, the $565 tournament features two flights for each of the next three days. A player can buy in as many times as they want (provided they have been eliminated from the earlier runs), meaning that a player could conceivably put out over $3000 in buy-ins and juice if they played all six of the flights.
The 2016 version of the tournament is a result of the massive success of the inaugural run in 2015. Drawing in 22,374 entries, the 2015 Colossus was the largest tournament ever in WSOP history (it is estimated that there were around 14,000 unique entries), but there were complaints, most notably that, with such a massive throng of players, that the winner didn’t receive a bigger payday (champion Cord Garcia “only” won $638,880 for his work). The WSOP has corrected that for 2016 and is expecting the potential for more than 30,000 entries to come to the tables between Thursday and Saturday for “Colossus II.”
For those whose tastes may run to a “smaller” field tournament, the first $10,000 tournament of the WSOP summer will be contested on Saturday. The $10,000 Seven Card Stud World Championship will start at 4PM and will probably be populated by many of the top professionals in the world. Brian Hastings defeated Scott Clements last year to take the title and it is expected that he will be back to defend his crown.
It’s going to be seven weeks of constant poker action and the community is ready…the 2016 World Series of Poker is underway!
