DAY 1 A OF WSOP MAIN EVENT – FIELD LOSES TOP PLAYERS
No official figures are available yet, but it looks like last year's Day 1A turnout of 1 258 players has been exceeded and overall registrations appear to be up. However, WSOP 2008 ended early for Ray Rahme, Tom Durr and James Mackey, David Benyamine, John Gale, David Pham and David “Devilfish” Ulliott – all top players expected to go deep.
The Main Event of the 2008 World Series of Poker – the $10 000 buy-in World Championship No-Limit Hold'em – has started with Day 1A at the Rio in Las Vegas, and there have already been some notable eliminations. Day 1 takes place over 4 days, then there is a rest day before starting again on two Day 2 flights, taking another five days to reach a final table of nine survivors. This year the Final Table format has changed dramatically in that final table play will take place in November, when the final table action will be played over two days and ESPN television will provide live viewing of the action.
A total of 6 358 players registered for last year's WSOP Main Event, significantly less than in 2006, when 8 773 players entered. 2007’s prize-pool was $59,784,954 paying 621 players , with Jerry Yang taking home first prize winnings of $8,250,000.
Today we saw Event Day 1A featuring big name players Joe Hachem, Scotty Nguyen, Ray Rahme, Freddy Deeb, Eli Elezra, Josh Arieh, J.J. Liu, Svetlana Gromenkova, Thomas Wahlroos, Kido Pham, Tuan Lam, Jon Turner, Noah Boeken, Mark Vos, Joe Beevers, Joe Sebok, Vince Van Patten, Paul Wasicka, Toto Leonidas, Matt Stout, Young Phan, Shannon Shorr, Billy Baxter and Susie Isaacs. On the celebrity front, Ray Romano and Jason Alexander showed their best poker faces.
