The Colossus becomes biggest tournament ever with 22,374 entrants, Hyper and 2-7 Triple Draw tournaments underway

One of the main attractions of the 2015 World Series of Poker is the $565 buy-in The Colossus. The WSOP has been marketing the event as the biggest live poker tournament ever and put a $5 million guarantee on it to make it even more attractive to players. In the end, a record of 22,374 players registered for the tournament, creating a prize pool of $11,187,000, with $638,880 going to the winner. Meanwhile, Event #6 $1,000 Hyper Holdem and Event #7, the $10,000 Limit 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball Championship have also started yesterday. 

The previous record holder was the 2006 WSOP Main Event with a total of 8,773 entries and to break the record the Rio ran four flights in two days, with 5,000-6,000 players registering for each flight.

982 dealers were burning cards and pushing pots relentlessly and by the end of Day 1, there were only 3,447 players left standing. Only 506 players remained by the start of Day 3, the chip leader is Valentin Vornicu, a WSOP Circuit grinder with 6 WSOPC titles and 27 cashes.

Several players had problems with the prize pool distribution, the top prize is only 5.7% of the total prize pool, which a lot of pros feel is not big enough. The WSOP has stated that they have listened to the players who have previously stated that they would like flatter payouts in the WSOP Main Event and that they have adjusted the payouts of The Colossus accordingly.

Flatter payouts make a lot of sense in the WSOP Main Event, where players battle 3-4 days just to reach the paying spots. For most recreational players, cashing the $10,000 buy-in Main Event is already a big success and with flatter payouts a lot more players will cash and have a positive experience which is good for the game in the long run.

In a $565 event however, players register because they want to make a huge score with a small investment and they probably don't care about mincashing as much. It is hard to know which payout structure would be the best, but many pros, including JC Tran, Vanessa Rousso and Darryll Fish have criticized the current payouts. 

Winning The Colossus will nevertheless result in a payday that returns 1,130x the inital buy-in, so it's safe to say the eventual winner won't be very disappointed.

A total of 1436 players registered for Event #6 $1,000 Hyper Holdem, creating a prize pool of $1.292.400. Thanks to the structure, by the end of Day 1 the 140 payings spots have been reached and the 9-handed final table was set. The biggest name in the finale is Matthew Woodward, but the biggest stack belongs to Harrison Beach.

Seat 1. Matthew Woodward - 710.000
Seat 2. Robert Suer - 765.000
Seat 3. Wayne Boyd - 175.000
Seat 4. Harrison Beach - 2.280.000
Seat 5. Marc Macdonnell - 655.000
Seat 6. Aleksandr Gofman - 435.000
Seat 7. Kenneth Johnson - 650.000
Seat 8. Ryan Julius - 930.000
Seat 9. John Reading - 610.000

Final table payouts:

1. $252.068
2. $155.876
3. $98.623
4. $71.586
5. $52.807
6. $39.547
7. $30.048
8. $23.133
9. $18.041

109 players registered for Event #7 $10,000 Limit 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball Championship, creating a prize pool of $1.024.600. By the end of Day 1, there were 57 players left with Layne Flack, Phil Galfond, Rep Porter and Matt Glantz in the top 10.

Top 10 stacks

1. Craig Hartman - 147.300
2. Rep Porter - 141.800
3. Maximilian Casal - 138.700
4. Ismael Bojang - 121.900
5. Layne Flack - 116.200
6. Mark Gregorich - 115.200
7. Phil Galfond - 112.000
8. Mike Gorodinsky - 110.700
9. Scott Clements - 107.500
10. Matt Glantz - 100.000

Payouts

1. $322.756
2. $199.438
3. $130.851
4. $89.939
5. $63.863
6. $46.813
7-8. $35.389
9-10. $27.971
11-12. $22.110