2016 WSOP Main Event Updates

The Main event of the 2016 WSOP kicked off last Saturday. There will be day 1's spread across 3 days. We won't have all players in the same room until late Thursday. A total of 6,737 players signed up for the event. We didn't set any records, but it's a strong showing that proves people are still interested in the WSOP. With this many players the prize pool reached over $63 million. The money bubble starts with player 1012 being the last to not receive a payout. Although the WSOP usually gives this player a free buy in to the next main event. So not all is lost. This year, once again, all 9 players who reach the final table will be instant millionaires. The money jump from 10th to 9th is quite significant with 10th place receiving just $650,000 and 9th $1 million. Compare to the jump from 9th to 6th where it's just a difference if $400,000. While this payout structure is terrible if you don't make the final table, it does have its benefits. For the viewers that is. With not much of an increase in money for the first few levels, we should players looking to chip and play more aggressive. It's not until we get 5th, and 4th place where we start to see some major money bumps of almost $1 million per place. Of course, the big jump is from 2nd to 1st by almost $3.5 million. First place will take home a cool $8 million. As it stands, Thursday evening in Las Vegas, we are down to 1134 players. The money bubble is about arrive, and the players are on one of their 15 minute breaks. Our chip leader is German player, Kenny Hallaert with just over 1.2 million in chips. Jason Kinder, Marc Andre Ladouceur, Vementin Vornicu, and Mark Zullo round out the top 5 places. One of the bigger stories is from Melanie Weisner, a female player from Houston Texas. She currently sits in 6th place and is looking good. Weisner is no stranger to the WSOP, but has little success since 2010. She has no final tables, no bracelets and no cash larger than $27,000. The professionals are not without putting their names in the hat for contenders at this point either. Scott Montgomery is in 11th place. Jon Turner, Shaun Deeb and Sorel Mizzi are all in the top 35 with over 700,000 in chips. Last year's WSOP main event champion – Joe Mckeehen is still in the field but towards the bottom of the pack and needs to stay alive. Other big names still left include Todd Brunson, Eli Elezra and Olivier Busquet.