Defending champion Daniel Weinman opens the 2024 World Series of Poker (Image courtesy of WSOP.com and Poker News)

For the past five weeks, the 2024 World Series of Poker has taken center stage in Las Vegas. Contested at the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas, the 55^th annual event has seen record-breaking fields and the return to prominence of several top-flight professionals. 

On Wednesday, it saw the start of its $10,000 Championship Event (the “Main Event” is a television-created name) as the defending champion stepped forth to issue the call of “Shuffle Up and Deal.”

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The Greatest Poker Tournament in the World

As the clock struck noon on the felt battlegrounds of the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas, defending champion Daniel Weinman took to the stage to offer the perfunctory call that opens almost any poker tournament worldwide. 

“This is the greatest poker tournament in the world,” Weinman stated to the assembled players in the arena. 

“I plan on playing in this tournament for the rest of my life and I am excited to see who gets their name up on the wall next to me – if I don’t do it again.”

In 2023, Weinman maneuvered his way through the largest field in the history of the event – 10,043 players (the WSOP Championship Event is a freezeout, meaning only one buy-in per person) – to score the largest ever individual prize in tournament poker, $12.1 million. 

Those figures topped the previous high that was set almost two decades earlier when Jamie Gold captured the title. In that event, Gold would outlast a 9773-player field to earn a $12 million first-place prize.

Daniel Weinman celebrated after winning the World Series of Poker Main Event in 2023. (Image: Associated Press / Alamy)

All indications are that the 2024 version of this tournament may challenge or even surpass its record performance from last year. Nearly every event has topped previous records in player numbers and the halls of both the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas have been filled to the rim with top poker professionals, amateurs, and the dreamers who are looking for their big score. This year’s event has also seen a return to prominence of several top players.

Along with Ivey and Negreanu’s achievement, poker pro Scott Seiver became only the sixth man in WSOP history to win THREE WSOP bracelets in the same series; he still has time to become the only player to win four in a WSOP calendar year, with several events still on the Las Vegas calendar and the WSOP-Europe and WSOP Paradise (should it run again) still on the horizon.

Day 1A Sets the Course

There is an old saying in the tournament poker world – “You can’t win a tournament on the first day, but you certainly can lose it.” That adage was etched in many players’ minds as the cards went in the air after Weinman’s opening call, but for a couple of unfortunate runners, it was going to be a short race.

On the very first hand of the day, not one but TWO players would be eliminated from the WSOP Championship Event, essentially burning through $10,000 in mere minutes. On one hand, two players flopped a set on an 8-J-10 start, but it was the player with pocket eights who made quads when the case eight came on the turn. That was enough for the player to get a full double on the first hand of action and the player holding the pocket tens on the flop out of the event in rapid fashion.

In the other hand, there was a bit more drama. On a J-6-10 flop, two players went to the turn to see an innocuous 4♠ hit, which brought more bets from the duo. 

An Ace on the river lit the pre-Independence Day fireworks as one player jammed his remaining stack, the other called, and the caller showed down a K-Q for the rivered Broadway straight. All the original bettor could produce was his pocket sixes for the flopped set, pack his bags, and exit the Horseshoe $10,000 poorer.

According to the unofficial statistics from WSOP.com, 916 players were a part of the opening day action in the WSOP Championship Event. Of that number, 620 will be coming back next week to resume play in poker’s most prestigious event. A quick look at the leaderboard – completely unnecessary at this point – shows that Joshua Feiger is the only player over the 300K mark in chips (311,900), while Israel’s Assaf Zeharia heads the international contingent in second place with 276,600 in chips.

The reason this is “unofficial” is that there is a long way to go before we even know the final numbers. Day 1B will take place on Thursday, with Days 1C and 1D in action on Friday and Saturday, respectively. 

The first three flights will reconvene on Sunday, July 7, while the fourth flight (traditionally the largest of all opening action because it is the last day for players to get into the tournament) will have its own Day 2 action next Monday (July 8). The surviving players from all opening flights will join together for the first time on July 9 (Tuesday), at which time the prize pool and payouts will be known for the 2024 World Series of Poker $10,000 Championship Event.