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Top pros Negreanu, Chan lead $1 million WSOP field. Event gets underway July 1
The field for the World Series of Poker's richest buy-in tournament ever is seven-eighths filled, the WSOP has reported.
The tourney, which will be the 55th of 61 separate events at this year's WSOP, is a no-limit Texas hold 'em tournament with an unprecedented buy-in of $1 million.
The event will be held on July 1, 2 and 3, 2012, at the site of the WSOP, the Rio All-Suites Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.
WSOP officials said that as of the end of last week, 42 people have committed to participating in the high-priced event, which has a maximum entry field of 48 players.
Some of the announced entrants are well-known professional poker players, some are lesser-known pros, some aren't pros at all and some want to remain anonymous (at least for the time being).
Among the better-known pros who have reserved a spot in the tournament (a $50,000 deposit was required, with balance due later this month) are Daniel "Kid Poker" Negreanu, Johnny "The Orient Express" Chan, Bobby Baldwin, Patrik Antonius, Gus "The Great Dane" Hansen, Erik Seidel, Dan Shak, Tom Dwan, Tony "Tony G" Guoga, Jonathan Duhamel, Andy Beal, Jason Mercier, Bertrand "Elky" Grospellier and Phil Ruffin.
Others signing up for the big battle are Giovanni Guarascio, Arnaud Mimran, Cary Katz, Paul Phua, Paul Newey, Richard Yong, Bob Bright, Justin Smith, Carlos Nahas, Frédéric Banjout, John Morgan, Eugene Katchalov, Jens Kyllönen, David "Viffer" Peat, Vivek Rakjumar, Andrew Robl, Nick Schulman, Noah Schwartz, Roger Teska and Sam Trickett.
Also signing up was Guy Laliberte, who created the Vegas show Cirque de Soleil and its various sequels and who, in conjunction with the WSOP, came up with the idea for the $1 million tourney as a way to benefit his global water charity, One Drop (11% of the proceeds from the tournament are to benefit the charity).
In addition, four people have anonymously signed up for the event, though their collective covers will be blown as soon as the tournament kicks off (the final table will be televised by ESPN).
Finally, three spots have been reserved for winners of various satellite tournaments which are not completed.
The field is expected to eventually be filled, yielding a total prize pool of $48 million before One Drop gets it cut, which would be about $5 million.
The winner of the tournament is expected to take home the highest top prize ever awarded for a poker tournament.
The record is currently held by Jamie Gold, who earned $12 million by winning the WSOP Main Event in 2006.
By Tom Somach
Gambling911.com Staff Writer
