The Colossus of Poker

The WSOP begins on Wednesday, May 27th with the Casino Employees' No Limit Hold'Em Tournament. The event is limited to people who work in the industry. Even the dealers hired to work the WSOP are eligible to enter. In fact, upon being hired dealers are asked for their shift preference (Days, Swing, Graveyard) and if they plan to play in the employee event. It is a way to ease into the summer's biggest poker festival with a "soft opening" and test all the systems for registration as well as all of the support needed to put the entire event together. Despite the limited nature of the field, last year there were 876 players entered. 

While there are some smaller events scheduled for Thursday, the real kickoff is on Friday with the "Colossus". This tournament is projected to be the largest ever live poker tournament in the history of poker. To start with, the "Colossus" has a guaranteed prize pool of $5 million and an entry fee of only $565, the lowest entry fee of any WSOP Bracelet event. In order to clear the guarantee, the tournament will need 10,000 entrants.

 The tournament is set up with four starting flights to accommodate the anticipated crowds. The concept is that players may enter any flight and if they unfortunately get eliminated they will be allowed to re-enter in a subsequent flight. Pre-registration is open for all four flights, so a player wanting to make sure that they have every possible chance to get their share of that $5 million can register in advance for all four flights. Any unused entries are refunded. Flights will begin play at 10 AM and 6 PM on Friday and Saturday. Players remaining from the four flights will be combined on Sunday and play will continue through Monday with the final table of nine players on Tuesday.  According to a report from Card Player Magazine, The Colossus may already have enough entries to be the largest field of players in the history of poker.

Link to Card Player Magazine Article