The 45th Annual WSOP is Finally Here
The 45th annual World Series of Poker tournament started on May 27th, 2014 in Las Vegas. This tournament consists of 7 weeks of play and a prize pool that has been estimated to be around $200 million. The tournament will end with the Main Event where one player will be crowned the champion and receive a $10 million prize.
The WSOP is made up of 65 different event and is taking place at the Rio Resort. The tournament began with a $500 game for casino employees which is a warm-up for the tournament organizers. The culminating game will be the No Limit Hold’em Main Event held on July 5th, 2014. The Main Event eliminates a majority of the playing field and in the end 9 players will be declared finalists. The tournament will then break for a few months and start again for the finals in November.
Details on the 45th Annual WSOP
Approximately 80,000 players will enter and play in the WSOP this year and the organizers believe they will give away about $200 million in prizes which is only the 2nd time in the history of the WSOP where this much in prize money will be given away. In 2013, $197 million in prize money was given away in the WSOP.
The 2014 WSOP will include a $1 million charity buy-in game that takes place every other year. The cap for this game is 56 players from amateur and professional poker circles. About 10% of the proceeds from this charity event will be given to The One Drop Foundation. This non-profit organization was created by Guy Laliberte, the founder of Cirque du Soleil and is works to provide clean drinking water to those in developing countries.
There are other special contests that will be part of the 2014 WSOP including a women-only game and an event for players that are 50 years of age or older.
Demographics of the 2014 WSOP
26% of those that participate in the WSOP are from California and Nevada while 74% of participants are from somewhere in the United States. There are also many players that come from Europe, Australia and Canada. The average age of players at the WSOP is 38 and 94% of participants are male.
What to Expect in the 2014 WSOP
During the next 7 weeks, at any given time, there will be about 5,000 players at the tournament tables at the Rio. The events can have a buy-in as low as $500 and have about 1,300 players participating in each event. The winners in every event will win a coveted WSOP gold bracelet as well as a cash prize. This year, one of the players to watch is Canadian Daniel Negreanu who has been named WSOP Player of the Year twice.
