2019 WSOP Main Event Draws Second Largest Field In The Tournament's History8,569 Entries Built A Prize Pool of More Than $80 Million, With $10 Million Going To The Eventual Champion |
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Five days after the first cards were dealt, registration has now officially closed in the 2019 World Series of Poker $10,000 no-limit hold’em main event. A total of 8,569 players turned out for poker’s world championship, surpassing 2018 to become the second largest field in the storied history of this tournament. The huge turnout built a final prize pool of $80,548,600, with $10,000,000 set to be awarded to the eventual winner.
“It’s truly amazing. It really is the cherry on top of the Sundae for the 50th annual World Series of Poker. Never would we have dreamed to reach this number in this day and age,” said WSOP VP of Corporate Communications Seth Palansky. “We have players from all over the globe. I think we have six continents represented here, 87 countries… it is truly spectacular. With over $80 million in the prize pool, this truly is a dream scenario for the WSOP.”
The WSOP main event has now seen an increase in turnout for four consecutive years, with this year’s participation up roughly nine percent over 2018, with 695 more entries. Turnout is up more than 33 percent from 2015, when just 6,420 players came out to the Rio for the big dance.
Here is a look at the top five WSOP main events in history in terms of field size:
| Year | Champion | Entries | Top Prize |
| 2006 | Jaime Gold | 8,773 | $12,000,000 |
| 2019 | TBD | 8,569 | $10,000,000 |
| 2018 | John Cynn | 7,874 | $8,800,000 |
| 2010 | Jonathan Duhamel | 7,319 | $8,944,310 |
| 2017 | Scott Blumstein | 7,221 | $8,150,000 |
This year’s day 1A saw 1,334 entries this year, while 1,914 played day 1B on Independence Day. Day 1C drew 4,877 entries, surpassing the record of 4,571 set by the same starting flight in 2018 to become the largest ever starting flight in main event history.
For the first time ever, the WSOP allowed late registration up to the start of day 2. A total of 444 players took advantage of the new option, with 100 buying in for day 2AB and another 344 doing so on day 2C.
The top 1,286 finishers will cash this year, with a min-cash being worth $15,000. A few years ago the WSOP increased the total amount of the field that made the money to 15 percent. With this being the largest ever field since that change was made, this year will see most players ever cash in the main event. The top nine finishers this year will all cash for at least seven figures, with the final nine receiving the following payouts:
1st Place: $10,000,000
2nd Place: $6,000,000
3rd Place: $4,000,000
4th Place: $3,000,000
5th Place: $2,200,000
6th Place: $1,850,000
7th Place: $1,525,000
8th Place: $1,250,000
9th Place: $1,000,000
Check out Card Player TV’s video covering the final numbers for this event below:
Day 2C began with 4,008 players taking their seats. When play was halted for the day, just 1,793 remained. They will join the 1,087 surviving players from day 2AB as one combined field for day 3.
The overall chip leader is Julian Milliard with 947,900. Other big stacks from day 2C include Vlastimil Pustina (930,700), Andrew Brokos (895,400), Aleksa Pavicevic (867,700) and Nai Hu (798,300).
Plenty of big names bagged up healthy stacks, including bracelet winner and former November Niner Tom Cannuli (667,000), Kevin Saul (623,900), bracelet winner Kathy Liebert (555,000), three-time bracelet winner Adam Friedman (549,600), Sam Greenwood (535,800), four-time bracelet winner Jeff Madsen (488,600), two-time bracelet winners Brandon Cantu (464,500) and Calvin Anderson (459,400), Bertrand Grospellier (428,000), and another pair of two-time champions at the WSOP in David ‘ODB’ Baker (418,700) and Cliff Josephy (404,000).
Day 2C also saw many notables hit the rail, including all-time WSOP bracelet leader Phil Hellmuth, Phil Laak, Ben Lamb, Joe McKeehen, Ben Heath, Greg Mueller, Fedor Holz, Scott Blumstein, Patrik Antonius and comedian Ray Romano.
There were four prior winners of this event that made it through day 2C in defending champ John Cynn (248,900), Jime Bechtel (251,600), Johnny Chan (232,500 and Scotty Nguyen (17,500).
Day 3 kicks off at noon on July 8, with 2,880 players remaining with a shot at becoming the 2019 WSOP main event champion.
For more coverage from the summer series, check out the 2019 WSOP landing page, complete with a full schedule, results, news, player interviews, and event recaps.
Featured table and Ray Romano photos provided by WSOP / Joe Giron.
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