Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas is one of the hottest locations at the moment since this is where the 49th edition of the World Series of Poker is taking place over the span of the next month. As every other year, the poker festival aims to provide players with a wide variety of poker events and one such emblematic tournament is Event #32: $1,000 Seniors No-Limit Hold’em giving a wider spectrum of players the chance to claim one of the coveted WSOP bracelets.
WSOP is well-known for its diverse poker offerings which aim to give players the opportunity to put their skills to the test. Among the events featured in the schedule of the poker festival are some tournaments which could not be found on most poker festivals and this has to be taken into account. Special events such as the senior ones which pay special attention to participants over 50, Pot-Limit which is another beloved poker game, as well as ladies’ events which are devoted to female poker players from near and far, give a lot.
Last Friday saw the official start of the Seniors event which attracted a total of 5,919 players willing to become part of the field and prove their skills. What should be taken into account is the fact that this Day 1 set a new record in the history of WSOP by being the largest single Day 1. This number of players registering for action bested last year’s record of 5,389 showing that every year more and more people are willing to participate in this kind of events.
Poker Action Reached Final Table
With their joint efforts, the total prize pool of this event reached some $5,327,100 which secures a sweet payday for every player who makes it past the money bubble burst. The chip leader at the end of the first day of action was Kevin O’Donnell who had a total of 171,100 in chips to his name at the end of this day, marking a significant jump from the starting chip stack of 5,000.
The end of the day saw only 934 players progressing ahead towards the second day of action approaching the cash prizes. Day 2 of the 32nd poker tournament for this year saw them returning and the pace of game was even faster this time around. Among all players, the one that managed to stand out in the crowd was Ronald Bishop with his chip count of 1,086,000. Bishop and the runner-up player Frank Berry with his chip stack of 1,017,000 placed a significant gap between them and the rest of the rank list.
An interesting fact from this day was that the oldest player to continue ahead towards Day 3 of the event was Andreas Dassopoulos who is aged 83 and still boasting competitive chip stack of 145,000 in this event. Little by little players were being eliminated from the run towards the final table which is why the first minutes of Day 3 witnessed only 101 players reuniting. Over the span of ten levels of game, they were reduced to only eight surviving participants which will have the chance to meet once again at the final table.
Gary Friedlander is the player who will welcome them on Day 4 as the leading participant with his significant chip count of 8,080,000, which he generated after he demonstrated his skills against Bill Bennett and increased his chip stack. This Monday is set to welcome the Final Table of this event and the generous payouts it has on offer. Whoever claims the first place will receive not only the WSOP gold bracelet but also some $662,983.
