T
he 2014 World Series of Poker kicked off this Tuesday in Las Vegas from the Rio All Suites Hotel and Casino.
Following tradition, the first event was the $500 buy-in Casino Employee Event which attracted 876 casino employees from all over the world. The prize pool for this event is $394,000.
To kick off the summer series, the Tournament Director Jack Effel and WSOP Exec Ty Stewart took the podium to give an introduction and asked the crowd if they would like free money. Just then there was a bang and money was showered from the ceiling of the Brasilia room to the tune of $10,000 in $1 bills. Some people in the crowd were able to get their hands on upwards of $30.
“This year we gotta be able to have fun,” said Stewart. “Bring a good vibe to this place. I think [the $10,000 money drop] did it.”
Stewart said he had the money drop planned for more than a month and alluded to it by mentioning that the forecast was cloudy and there could be rain in the Rio. There’ll be more hints and fun this summer too.
Event #2 saw some of the biggest names in the poker world arrive at the Rio to play the $25,000 buy-in Mix Max event including Daniel Negreanu, the three Phils (Ivey, Hellmuth, and Laak), Mike Mizrachi, Dan “Jungleman” Cates, Vanessa Selbst, Sam Trickett, John Juanda, and Brian Rast.
Day 2 of this four-day event will take place at 12:00 noon PST with everyone is competing for a share of $3,111,250.
Event #3 will also take place with the $1,000 Pot-Limit Hold’em event.
