The main event at the World Series of Poker is underway in Vegas with 8,532 players, not counting alternates who will be added as the four “Day Ones” roll out. That’s another record, almost 50% more entrants than last year and ten times the number of players three years ago when Chris Moneymaker won.
CardPlayer magazine (which has live updates) reports that it took all of 7 minutes for the first player to bust out. That’s a little longer than last year, when one player at the ESPN feature table went out on the first hand.
For the first time, each player has an All-In button they can toss onto the felt instead of having push forward all of their chips.