2016 WSOP Main Event field includes 6,737 players, fifth largest ever | poker news

The 2016 World Series of Poker Main Event champion went to bed Monday night with some of the chips that will take him to the promised land. One of the seven game days required to reach the November Nine is behind him and long road of battles ahead.



Who is destined to take home the $8 million first place prize and lead a field of 6,737 in what ranks as the largest WSOP Main Event in five years? It could be Timothy Sheehan, who rose to the top of the total chip count by the end of Day 1C on Monday with 394,100, or Andrey Zaichenko or Gary Sewell, who also led their respective starting flights.

The modern history of the WSOP, coupled with the sheer size and reach of the field, suggests a high probability that the champion will come from somewhere else, but these three are just as well positioned as any of the 5,000 or so players who still have their eyes aimed at the most coveted prize in poker.

There’s plenty to play for, though no particular player will miss the $8 million first place prize and oversized six-figure WSOP Championship bracelet. While numbers mostly plateaued over the summer with most of the WSOP’s tent-poling events, Main Event attendance is good by historical standards – and each starting session saw an increase in year-on-year size, including another record-breaking Day 1C attendance .

• Day 1A: 741 to 764
• Day 1B: 1716 to 1733
• Day 1C: 3,963 to 4,240

For the first time ever, 15 percent of the Main Event field will share the prize pool, which reached $63,327,800, meaning 1,011 players will go home with more than the $10,000 they started with.

Overall, this tournament is still in its infancy; About 75 percent of the field somehow stuck to making one of the upcoming Day 2 sessions. However, that doesn’t mean nothing significant has happened in this tournament yet. Jason Mercier, who has taken a massive lead in the GPI WSOP Player of the Year race with a feat of two bracelets, a second place (and then more), must watch as those who follow him in their pursuit of the biggest title continue in poker while only being left with the Little One for One drop to fulfill his hopes of a third bracelet in Las Vegas this summer.

Phil Ivey made his first appearance at the 2016 WSOP on Monday, and despite having just over half a starting stack of 50,000 left at the end of five levels, there is still a wealth of play left in the structure of this tournament. Phil Hellmuth, who currently sits four bracelets ahead of Ivey on the all-time leaderboard, waited until the very last seconds of Day 1C before joining the fight and eventually bagging 45,200. While the all-time bracelet race has seemed to be heating up in recent years, Ivey’s absence this summer seems to indicate that Hellmuth has very little to fear as far as contenders for his throne go in the near future.

Unofficial overall top 10

1. Timothy Sheehan (Decatur, GA, USA) – 394,100
2. Gary Sewell (Duarte, CA, USA) – 312,500
3. Alvaro Lopez (Tucson, Arizona, USA) – 306,200
4. Andrey Zaichenko (Moscow, Russia) – 292,700
5. Kenny Hallaert (Hansbeke, Belgium) – 269,400
6. Ben Vinson (London, England) – 256,700
7. Scott Neuman (Rawlins, Wyoming, USA) – 226,000
8. Sean Case (Weatherford, OK, USA) – 222,500
9. Kevin Powell (Buckeye, Ariz., USA) – 219,800
10. Michael Schneider (Covington, GA, USA) – 215,800

The final week of the preliminary round brings fireworks

With three of the summer’s biggest tournaments packed into the final week of pre-main event action at the WSOP, it should come as no surprise that the poker world has gotten more than its fair share of excitement, as has recent bracelets of the year 2016 were awarded.

22-year-old Fedor Holz made headlines by winning the $111,111 One Drop High Roller, as he has done on numerous occasions in his young career. Holz led a field of 183 entrants, the largest turnout such a field had had since it was added to the schedule a few years ago, and won close to $5 million and his first WSOP bracelet.

“I just feel overwhelmed. I didn’t think it would turn out like this,” Holz said shortly after his victory. “I’m really happy right now… I was very focused when I came here. I even told my friends that this was going to be a very important week. I had such a great feeling about this tournament and was really into it, which is why winning it means so much to me.

“It’s one of the best experiences of my life,” he added.

It’s hard to put into perspective Holz’s success over the past 15 months, particularly in high roller events – but we’ll try. Since showing up in Monte Carlo with two Super High Rollers in April and May 2015, Holz has hit two deep runs at the 2015 WSOP (third in the $10,000 Six-Max No-Limit Hold’em Championship and 25 Main Event) and posted three seven-figure scores (wins at WPT Alpha8 at the Five Diamond Poker Classic and WPT National Philippines, and a runner-up finish earlier in the summer at the Super High Roller Bowl for a total of $8.5 million). ) before you even factor in that win.

It’s really saying something when his performance can eclipse Brian Rast’s run to a second Poker Players Championship title or Jens Kyllönen’s impressive run to a $1.1 million payday in the pot-limit Omaha High Roller. Holz has earned it, however, by putting together one of the greatest singles years we’ve ever seen in tournament poker back in 2016 – oh, and by the way, he’s still alive and playing in the Main Event with a more than – healthy 93,300 after Day 1C.

Small blinds

• The debut of the tag team event was greeted with great enthusiasm by the players. 863 teams took on the format, with pro-heavy teams, family constellations and friends pooling their funds for a shot at a bracelet for just a $250 individual investment, to name just a few examples of how teams came together. Doug Polk and Ryan Fee won their second and first bracelets of their careers, with Polk ceding the final stages of the tournament to Fee as he crossed over to play the one drop high roller.
• Though unlikely to reach the fever pitch of the game’s pre-Black Friday era, as usual, a strong group of celebrities and athletes emerged to take their own shots at the WSOP Main Event glory . Regulars including actors Brad Garrett, Ray Romano, Jennifer Tilly and Kevin Pollack were joined by rapper Hoodie Allen, director Nick Cassavetes, Curb Your Enthusiasm producer Gavin Polone, former Astros and Phillies seamstress Brad Lidge, NFL defenseman Richard Seymour and Antoine Winfield, recently retired soccer star John Arne Riise and cricket legend Shane Warne, among others.
• William Wachter of Mahopac, New York, at age 95, was the oldest player to compete in the 2016 WSOP Main Event. The youngest, Evan House-Hull of Sandoval, Illinois, USA, was less than three weeks past his 21st birthday. The average age of a Main Event player this year is just over 40

what’s ahead: Day 2AB with two simultaneous but independent sessions takes place on Tuesday, Day 2C is scheduled for Wednesday. The field will be consolidated into a single group for the first time on Thursday for Day 3.

This week’s results

Event 55: $50,000 Poker Player’s Championship

Entries: 91

Winner: Brian Rast ($1,296,097; third bracelet)

Remarks: This is Rast’s second time winning the $50,000 Poker Player’s Championship, and he joins Michael Mizrachi as the only two-time winner in the event’s history. In 2011, Rast defeated Phil Hellmuth heads-up to win his second WSOP bracelet of his career in PPC.

Event 58: $1,000 No Limit Hold’em

Entries: 1,397

Winner: Corey Thompson ($221,163; first bracelet)

Event 59: $5,000 No Limit Hold’em

Entries: 863

Winner: Yue Du ($800,586; first bracelet)

Event 60: $1,500 Seven Card Stud High-Low Split eight or better

Entries: 521

Winner: David Prociak ($156,546; first bracelet)

Event 61: $1,000 Tag Team No Limit Hold’em

Entries: 863 teams

Winner: Ryan Fee and Doug Polk ($153,358; first bracelet for Fee, second for Polk)

Remarks: This was the very first tournament of its kind at the WSOP. Aside from Polk, previous bracelet winners whose teams made the final table include James Dempsey (fourth), John Gale (fifth), and Owais Ahmed and Benny Glaser (sixth).

Event 62: $25,000 Pot Limit Omaha High Roller

Entries: 184

Winner: Jens Kyllönen ($1,127,035; first bracelet)

Event 63: $1,000 No Limit Hold’em

Entries: 2,452

Winner: Tony Dunst ($339,254; first bracelet)

Event 64: $3,000 pot-limit Omaha high-low split eight or better

Entries: 473

Winner: Kyle Bowker ($294,960; first bracelet)

Event 65: $1,000 Women’s No-Limit Hold’em Championship

Entries: 819

Winner: Courtney Kennedy ($149,108; first bracelet)

Event 66: $1,000 WSOP.com Online No Limit Hold’em

Entries: 1,247

Winner: Clayton Maguire ($210,279; first bracelet)

Event 67: $111,111 High Roller for One Drop No-Limit Hold’em

Entries: 183

Winner: Fedor Holz ($4,981,775; first bracelet)