World Series of Poker Main Event Set to Be a Record Breaker
Author:
Roy Brindley
The 2024 World Series of Poker has entered its home straight. The start of the end begins this week with the hallowed Main Event getting underway. Last year, the $10,000 entry competition attracted a record 10,043 players. The latest predictions suggest the jewel in poker’s crown will boast an even bigger field in 2024.
Across the board, 2024’s World Series of Poker (WSOP) tournament entries have been in line with 2023’s figures. However, the trend has seen Hold’em tournaments attract larger fields than 12 months ago, while other disciplines have fallen short of corresponding figures. So far, four tournaments have attracted 10,000-plus entries.
Daniel Negreanu landed his seventh WSOP title at the end of June. ©WorldPokerTour
Outside of players from the United States, British players have enjoyed the most success. Dan Willis, Darius Samual, Richard Ashby, and Ben Collins have all claimed a World Series gold bracelet for the UK. The biggest prize to date, $5,415,152, has been credited to the bank account of an Indian player, Santhosh Suvarna.
Will More Nations Produce WSOP Champions?
Australians have won three events, and two bracelets have been given to players representing Spain, Italy, Canada, France, and Russia. There has been a fifth gold bracelet for a British player at the 2024 World Series. Ryan Otto collected $150,916 when winning an online $888 No-Limit Hold’em Crazy 8s tournament.
Sixty-seven countries have produced gold bracelet winners during the 55-year history of the World Series of Poker. Moldova and Vietnam welcomed home their first champions last year when players from 24 different countries won bracelets. Twenty-two nations have claimed a victory in this year’s series. Amongst those are Chile, Argentina, Bulgaria and North Macedonia.
What a rail! What a celebration! 🎉
Argentina’s Franco Spitale is our newest WSOP gold bracelet winner after he was the last man standing in Event 54: $1,500 Millionaire Maker NLH and took the $1,250,125 top prize! #wsop2024 pic.twitter.com/p3DE5EmXWJ
— WSOP – World Series of Poker (@WSOP) June 28, 2024
Numerically, with 19,337 entries (10,143 unique), the $400 Colossus No-Limit Hold’em tournament has created the largest field size of 2024’s World Series. The corresponding event in 2023 attracted a 15,894 entry. This time, the prize winner was Bulgaria’s Martin Alcaide, who collected $501,240 as the last man standing.
Poker’s Big Three Have Done Good
There have been some familiar faces in the winner’s circle this summer. Bridging a 24-year gap between his first bracelet success – and ten years since his last victory – Phil Ivey moved into second position in the all-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner’s list when winning his 11th title, the $10,000 Limit 2-7 Triple Draw Championship.
Daniel Negreanu – one of the world’s best-known players with $50 million in career winnings – has also landed his first World Series tournament in over a decade. The Canadian took his lifetime bracelet haul to seven when winning the $50,000 Poker Players Championship.
Phil Helmuth, the winning-most World Series of Poker player with 17 bracelets, has yet to increase his tally during the 2024 series. The ‘Poker Brat’ has cashed in six live WSOP tournaments and two online WSOP events during the current series. His one final table came in the $1,500 Mixed Omaha.
Main Event Hopes and Dreams
Helmuth won the 1989 World Series Main Event defeating 177 rivals. Negreanu has finished eleventh in ‘the big one’ twice – in 2001 and 2015 – while Phil Ivey has a career-best finish of seventh achieved in 2009. This trio and thousands more will hope to create history in the days and weeks ahead.
This year, the $10,000 buy-in Main Event starts on July 3. Following four ‘Day 1s’, two ‘Day 2s’ will be played on July 7 and 8. The competition is then scheduled to run until July 17. The UK’s best online poker sites will provide news coverage of the Las Vegas event. Many will also host online satellites, offering places in other valuable land-based competitions.
