July 4th, and outside the Paris and Horseshoe Casinos the Las Vegas Strip has been packed with folks enjoying the heat and fireworks, and celebrating the union that brings so many different people together.
Inside, likewise.
The headline act on this day of celebration was Day 1C of the World Series of Poker Main Event, which has brought together players from near and far, united in their love of poker and the pursuit of happiness through the world’s greatest card game.
The numbers game
Will this Main Event set a new record for attendance for the third year in a row? It’s tough to say. The first two starting flights were up on last year’s numbers, by a mere 8 players for 1A and by 265 for 1B.
Day 1C, however, is significantly down on 2024, as the WSOP has reported 1,678 entries on Friday compared with 2,528 on the same day last year.
But before we discount the notion of a new record field, there are two points to bear in mind. Firstly, today was July 4th — and a Friday — which could mean players have delayed entering the Main Event due to celebrating and/or traveling to Las Vegas.
Secondly, early numbers in 2024 were also down on the previous year, but a new record was set nonetheless. More players entered Days 1A and 1B in 2023 than they did in 2024, and we know how that turned out — a record turnout of 10,112. Oh, and last year’s 1B, which was 25% down on the year before? It fell on July 4th.
One more thing: the last starting flight has always been the big one. Buckle up, Saturday’s likely to be busy. And don’t forget: if you’re sleeping one off after July 4th, there’s always late reg on Day 2.
1,249 make it through
Speaking of Day 2, we’ve already seen plenty of big names book their seats including the likes of Daniel Negreanu, Michael Mizrachi and — in case you missed his discreet entrance — Phil Hellmuth.
Friday’s crop has added more zest to what will surely be a spicy Day 2A with names such as Jon Kyte, Erick Lindgren, Victoria Livschitz (below) and Lucas Greenwood making it through with chips to play with.
In total, 1,249 players bagged up at the end of the day, and while precise chip counts are always a tricky proposition with such a large field, none other than 2023 WPT Player of the Year Bin Weng is right up at the top with a stack of 350K, almost 6x the starting stack. Two-time bracelet winner Andriy Lyubovetskiy looks to have bagged the biggest, with close to 400K.
But hey, Day 1 chip counts aren’t everything, right? At least, that's according to PokerOrg Player Advisory Board member Andrew Moreno.
More bracelets
Much of the real estate in the Paris ballroom was given over to satellites on Friday — hopefully resulting in plenty more Main Event entries — but there were other bracelet events going on too, particularly in the Horseshoe.
The $800 Summer Celebration started its second day with 361 players and a mission to play down to 1. If that seems ambitious, consider that Day 1 thinned the field to 361 from over seven thousand. All those entries created a prize pool of $3,698,201 and first-place prize money of $504,180. That will go the way of either Japan's Ryo Kotake or Italy's Giuseppe Zarbo, who are duking it out heads-up as this article goes to press.
There’s also a $10K Championship to be decided, this time for the Eight Game Mixed title and the $422,421 up top. After a long day's play it's come down to Eric Wasserson and Mike Gorodinsky (above) in such a finely balanced duel that we wouldn't be surprised if it needed an extra day to bring things to a close.
Finally, the $600 Deepstack Championship bracelet went to Nick Ahmadi, along with $302,165 in prize money.
Additional image courtesy of WSOP.
