For poker fans around the world, the World Series of Poker event has begun.  This is the main event for the competition.  A surprising start to the game was the lack of entrants.  Only 1,125 people have signed up and joined the main event.  The World Series of Poker is being held at Rio Pavilion for 4 days of No Limit Texas Hold’em.  The buy in was $10,000 for any player who wanted to try their luck at the tables.

This championship brings the top poker players from land based and online casinos each year.  The high entry fee requires the best players or those with deep pockets to join.  It is not a game for everyone, and this year is certainly showing how an economic struggle can change the amount of players.  In the last few years this main event has had 6,000 or more players.  The World Series of Poker officials were hoping to see at least 7,000 poker players for this year.  Seeing less than 2,000 is certainly causing officials to worry about future tournaments.

Still, officials are hoping more entrants will arrive in the next few days.  The WSOP can handle 3,000 players at one time in the room.  Over the next few days players get to see where they come in against other players.  It is a narrowing down of who will become the winner of the tournament.  The final day of the main event will still allow registration, and hopefully last year will not be repeated.  Last year too many players showed up on the last day to play and they could not be accommodated.

Any day that has been sold out means players who pre- registered would have had to choose a different day to play.  The WSOP hopes this will even things out a bit, so that they get more players in the next couple days and not slammed on the last day.  After the four days at the main event only the best players are going to move on.  They will play each other in the final tournament to decide who will ultimately be the champion of this year’s World Series for poker.

A number of online casinos will keep players updated as to who is winning.  Also, television channels will broadcast the tournament.  You’ll want to check your local service to find out which channels currently run the World Series of Poker.