The World Series of Poker created the Big 50 to celebrate its milestone anniversary.
As it turns out, the Big 50 has become the largest poker tournament in history, with an estimated 24,000 players.
That’s what happens when you offer a $1 million guaranteed prize to the winner with just a $500 buy-in, no rake on the first bullet, and plenty of opportunities to re-enter.
There was even talk of the Rio potentially running out of poker chips, and reports of players waiting in line for seven hours just to participate.
There were some hiccups with registration and logistics, understandably. But this poker tournament already has reached legendary status.
The city even had to create and approve new 1,000,000 and 5,000,000 chips.
According to PokerNews.com: “In addition to the array of rooms in the convention center, poker hands were being played at tables in the hallways, outside of the gift shop, and even in a vacant bowling alley across from the seafood buffet, among other creative locales to get as many players seated as possible.”
The tournament included four starting flights, all of which sold out. The final starting flight began Sunday at 11 a.m. in Las Vegas, so the field is now finalized.
A man named Jerald Williamson, who does not have a PokerNews bio and is an unknown quantity, holds the current chip lead at 4,105,000 at the end of Day 2b. The third and fourth flights have yet to play their second days.
Players began with 50,000 chips and played at 50-minute levels to coincide with the 50th anniversary theme.
The tournament will continue every day this week before a winner gets crowned Friday.
Poker has dwindled in popularity since Chris Moneymaker’s surprise win in the 2003 World Series of Poker Main Event set off a boom. That boom ended sharply on Black Friday in 2011, as the United States government seized the domains of PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and Absolute Poker/Ultimatebet.
Still, live tournaments have been growing in popularity in recent years, as series like the WSOP have offered low-entry, giant prize pool tournaments that appeal to the masses.
Players like Daniel Negreanu have predicted that the United States Supreme Court decision in 2018 that paved the way for states to legalize sports betting will eventually create a poker resurgence of some magnitude, especially if it makes online poker accessible once again.