Congrats to Matt Hawrilenko, winner of just over $1,000,000 in the $5,000 NL Holdem 6-max earlier this morning.
The big day has finally arrived, the final bracelet event of this year\’s World Series of Poker, the $10,000 NL Holdem World Championship starts shortly after 12pm today, after the various festivities that kick off the event conclude (marching bands, Wayne Newton, or whatever they decide to do this year).
Each Day 1 will play 5 two-hour levels of poker, with a 20-minute break after each level and a two-hour dinner break. Thousands will swarm the various tournament rooms of the Rio to either play or spectate, some hopefully catching the eye of the ESPN cameras that will be around to film all the action. Expect a return of the mysterious Post-It note covering the total number of registrants on the tournament clock, which eventually revealed 6844 entrants. This year\’s WSOP Staff Guide projects a field of 7323, and if last year is an indicator, Days 1a and 1b (being the 4th of July) will have the smaller fields, while Sunday and Monday\’s days 1c and 1d will be much larger as people decide to enjoy their weekend before plunking $10,000.
As always, plenty of updates will be available at www.wsop.com and Dan, Jen and the rest of Team Pokerati will do their part to describe the action over the next two weeks.