Biggest First Day Ever at WSOP Main Event
With all three day 1's in the bag, day 1c's chip leader John Gorsuch takes the overall lead into day 2
After days 1a & b both failing to reach the registration figures achieved for the past few years it looked likely that we might see total registration for the WSOP Main Event drop below 6,000 for the first time in a decade. However, after day 1c's turnout broke WSOP records for the biggest single number of entries for a starting flight (3,963) the final figure ended up at a very respectable 6,420, not quite as many as last year's 6,683, but more than 2013's 6,352. By the end of the day's play, Virginia's John Gorsuch was the chip leader (across all three days) with a 198,100 chip stack.
As you might expect from such a huge field, there were plenty of notables at the tables, among them several former Main Event champs in Martin Jacobson, Phil Hellmuth, Greg Merson, Jerry Yang, Ryan Reiss, Huck Seed, Scotty Nguyen, Joe Cada, Joe Hachem, and Peter Eastgate.
Last year's champ Jacobsen was fit enough to give the "Shuffle up an deal" (after having to postpone starting day 1a due to illness) to herald the start of play, but unfortunately for him he wasn't around by the end of the day, busting shortly after the dinner break. He was joined on the rail by Cada, Merson, and Yang who also fell at the first hurdle (Merson and Yang both losing to coolers; Yang's flopped set of 7's busted by a set of Aces and Merson's KK losing to an opponent's AA).
Other notables to hit the rail on day 1c included; Patrik Antonius, Mark Newhouse (final tablist for the past two years), Chino Rheem, Mike Sexton, David "ODB" Baker, Alexander "PostflopAction" Kostritsyn, Noah Schwartz, Layne Flack, and Jeff Madsen.
Of the big names coming back for day 2, the most heavily stacked from day 1c include; recent WPT500 winner Craig Varnell (144,500), Jared "Harrington10" Bleznick (135,000), Ryan Reiss (109,500), Eli Elezra (95,350), and Jamie Gold (90,000). Also still in contention are Phil Hellmuth, Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu, Sam Trickett, Antonio Esfandiari, Michael Mizrachi, Liv Boeree, and plenty more besides.
With 6,420 entrants this years prize pool exceeds $60m in total, and with a slightly flatter payout structure this year it means that 1,000 entrants will make the money (min cash = $15,000), and also that every one of the "November Nine" will take home a seven figure score, with $7,680,021 for the winner.