After months of anticipation the 2024 World Series of Poker finally kicked off in Las Vegas and the summer poker shindig had none other than fan favourite Daniel Negreanu there on day one…
The WSOP begins! https://t.co/O5teovbsYb
— Daniel Negreanu (@RealKidPoker) May 28, 2024
Negreanu wasn’t the only famous face to appear as the 55th annual running of the WSOP got underway – the show was opened by one of DNeg’s’ own faves, Golden Knights ice hockey star Jon Marchessault.
Marchessault was joined by legendary @WSOP Main Event champions to commemorate the occasion.
Daniel Negreanu was also all-in on the ceremonial start to the the 55th annual #WSOP ✨@ParisVegas | @HorseshoeVegas pic.twitter.com/z71hUPeBFv
— Caesars Entertainment (@CaesarsEnt) May 28, 2024
That wasn’t the end of it. A treasure trove of former Main Event champs took to the stage – see if you can name them all! (A hint: your writer needed some google help!)
It wasn’t all photo opportunities at the Horseshoe Las Vegas and Paris Las Vegas for the start of seven weeks of action, there was poker being played on the opening day too.
Admittedly, a chunk of that was being played by some very well-known faces indeed, a Champions Reunion event bumping the traditional Casino Employees tournament down a spot in the schedule.
Event #1: $5,000 Champions Reunion (NLHE)
Another quiz if you’re in the mood – which year did the following players win their Main Event title: Greg Raymer, Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Weinman, Berry Johnston, Espen Jorstad, Tom McEvoy, Koray Aldemir, Ryan Riess and Scott Blumstein.
Those poker greats were among the casualties on day one, a bounty on their head of a precious $10k Main Event entry. Not all the big names fell, however…
Dan Harrington, Greg Merson, Jamie Gold and Johnny Chan all made it safely through, the latter cracking Chris Moneymaker’s kings for a spot of Main event regicide…
Maybe I should of stayed home https://t.co/aZ6rCog4rD
— Chris Moneymaker ⭕ (@CMONEYMAKER) May 29, 2024
For those struggling to make out the cards, the hand ran out as follows:
Chris Moneymaker: K♥K♦
Johnny Chan: A♥K♣
Flop: 7♣Q♥A♣
Turn: 3♥
River: 10♦
By the end of play for the day, Qui Nguyen topped the chip counts in the chase for the $408,468 top prize, while Daniel Negreanu also made it through to day two.
Event #2: $500 Casino Employees (NLHE)
The Casino Employees tournament, as mentioned, is now event #2 on the 99-event schedule, and it attracted a very healthy 1189 entries at $500 per head.
That’s a cool $½million prizepool for those whose day job is to make everyone else’s poker life that much easier, and they are already down to the 179 players in the money.
Canada’s Caleb O’Donnell leads the way into day two, chasing the coveted WSOP gold bracelet and a $79,134 top prize.
Day two later today sees another two bracelet events entering the fray, event #3: $500 WSOP Kick-off NLHE Freezeout and event #4: $1500 Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better (8-handed).
We’ll be back again tomorrow with our daily roundup of what’s happening in Vegas, so be sure to check in on your one-stop shop for all things WSOP!
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