Whether or not the combined Day 1F and Day 2ABD flights of the 2021 World Series of Poker produce an overflow situation at the Rio Convention Center remains unclear as Tuesday's action begins. But there's at least one early indicator that it'll be a very, very busy day at the Rio. Each day for the past week, the WSOP has run a morning Mega satellite, offering seats directly into the Main Event.
Tuesday morning's 8 am satellite -- the seventh such morning Mega to be offered -- produced the largest turnout yet, by a wide margin. With 94 entrants and nine ME seats awarded, the Wednesday sattie more than doubled the event's typical turnout on the prior morning.
According to the WSOP tournament director who's been supervising these special satellites, there were about 30 people ready and waiting to play at 8 am sharp on Tuesday. That almost matches the typical attendance on earlier days. Satellites and the WSOP's Daily Deepstack events tend to start with very few players, since they run only as space allows. They then accumulate most of their entrants during the event's late-registration period.
The unexpected heavy turnout for Tuesday's morning Mega also produced an unexpected difficulty. Since the Mega was held in one of the smaller corners of the Amazon Room and ran much longer than earlier Megas, it caused just a very brief delay in getting Main Event Day 1F players seated on those specific tables. Getting the nine winning qualifiers recorded and their seats rewarded ran up to just a couple of minutes prior to the 11:00 am Day 1F kickoff. That produced a busy though still-well-controlled situation.
The Mega satellites have become a steady way for smaller-bankrolled players to find a way into the Main Event. Today's nine seat winners received the chance to jump into Day 1F immediately, or to wait a short while and join in as a late-registering player.
One might assume from the jump in turnout that the Mega was the very last chance to win a discounted seat. That's not quite true. According to WSOP tournament directors, two more Main Event Mega satellites are expected to run. The first should get underway at or about 8 pm on Wednesday, while the final morning Mega to be offered this series will begin at 8 am on Thursday.
Featured image source: Haley Hintze
