/ Matthew Pitt / 11 July 2011 / Leave a Comment 
Ever since the passing of "Black Friday" the poker community has been busy speculating the potential turnout for the World Series of Poker Main Event. With the likes of PokerStars and Full Tilt completely closing their doors to American customers (and the latter losing its operating licence) many believed that the total number of participants would be 5,000 or less.
This figure looked to be on the cards when only 897 players passed through the doors of the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino for Day 1a, though the first starting day is traditionally the least attended. Day 1b improved slightly with 985 players parting company with $10,000 in exchange for 30,000 tournament chips but it was the third and fourth starting days that have seen the attendance soar to levels that make this year's WSOP Main Event the third-largest in history.
Day 1c saw 2,181 players take part and this number was eclipsed by the staggering 2,802 who turned out for Day 1d on Sunday. A quick tot up of the figures shows a fantastic turnout of 6,865 players for the Main Event, only 2006 and 2010 Main Events have attracted more players at 8,773 and 7,319 respectively.
This bumper attendance has created a prizepool of $64,531,000 which is going to be shared out amongst the top 693 players. Finishing in 693rd place will see the player walk away with $19,359 whilst anyone making it to the final table and become a member of the November Nine will walk away guaranteed $782,115, with each subsequent player becoming a poker millionaire. But the prize everyone still in the tournament wants to get their hands on is the $8,711,956 first place prize. Simply, WOW!
However, there is still a long, long way to go before the money places are reached as the 2,031 surviving players from Day 1a and 1c will combine and return to their seats later today, with Tuesday seeing those who made it through Day 1b and 1d do the same. Then Wednesday will see everyone seated and playing together for the first time and the field will continue to be whittled down until only the final table of nine remain, which will occur at some point on Tuesday 19 July. The tournament will then be paused until November 5 when they will return to the Rio and continue to play until just two players have chips in front of them, and they will then fight it out for the title on November 7.
The official chip counts are still not in for Day 1a so the provisional chip leader going into the two Day 2s is Fred Berger of Las Vegas, Nevada who managed to turn his 30,000 starting stack into an impressive 209,000 on Day 1a. Day 1b's leader was none of than Ben Lamb with 188,925, the man who has been on fire at this year's WSOP and is currently in second place in the Player of the Year listings. The leader from Day 1c was Kevin Song with 163,325 chips and the unofficial leader of Day 1d was Mory Little with 179,450 chips.
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