The numbers are official at the Rio Casino in Las Vegas. The 2021 WSOP $10,000 Main Event attracted 6,650 runners and a prize pool worth $62 million. The top 1,000 places pay out with $8 million set aside to the next champion. Everyone at the final table will lock up at least a cool million. At the start of Day 3, a total of 2,362 players returned to the Rio.
The final number didn't matter. Everyone was simply happy to return to the Rio and play out a proper World Series of Poker Main Event Championship. Old school. Like it always used to be before last year's farce of a Main Event that was split into two segments with international and Americans playing online at different websites before switching up to a live table and an eventual heads-up battle. Ah, people did weird things in the pandemic to get by, the WSOP included. But this year, it's back to the traditional Main Event.
And as expected Phil Hellmuth did not squander the opportunity to make a jackass out of himself. In the past he showed up in many different forms and costumes. The worst and most pompous might've been Caesar, but this year he pandered to the ComicCom and LOTR fanboys by showing up as Gandolf. Hey, it could've been way worse, right?
So the Main Event. It's listed as 2021 WSOP Event #67 on the schedule but the $10,000 buy-in Main Event was spread out over six opening flights with an additional flight added at the last minute to accommodate any Europeans that were finally able to gain access to the US after travel restrictions were removed and European pros were able to head to Sin City directly instead of a shady end around through Mexico.
Day 1A had the smallest turnout with 423 entrants, whereas Day 1D had the biggest crowd with 2,550 runners. Day 1F attracted 1,335 entrants to boost the over number to 6,650. The prize pool ballooned to over $62 million. They decided to pay out a simple round number of 1,000 lucky folks who got to share in the spoils.
As expected the Main Event is top heavy with most of the cheesecake set aside to the champion and runner up. The winner snags a snazzy bracelet and $8 million in cash. The runner up banks $4.3 million, which is not too shabby, eh? Third place wins $3 million. Ninth place locks up at least $1 million.
Day 2 was split into two fields the first one had 2,892 runners survive the cut on Day 1. When Day 2ABD was over, only 1,440 players found a bag and advanced to Day 3. Day 2CEF began with 1,907 survivors from Day 1, but only 922 were alive at the end of the second day. In total, only 2,362 players survived the second day and advanced to Day 3.
2021 WSOP Main Event NUMBERS
Buy-in: $10,000
Entrants: 6,650
Prize Pool: $62,011,250
Payouts: 1,000
Final Table Payouts:
1. $8,000,000
2. $4,300,000
3. $3,000,000
4. $2,300,000
5. $1,800,000
6. $1,400,000
7. $1,225,000
8. $1,100,000
9. $1,000,000
- Day 1A: 523 entrants
- Day 1B: 845 entrants
- Day 1C: 600 entrants
- Day 1D: 2,550 entrants
- Day 1E: 797 entrants
- Day 1F: 1,335 entrants
