WSOP 2013 Gets Underway Today In Las Vegas

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Amateur and poker professionals from all around the globe have begun descending upon Las Vegas as the 44th World Series of Poker is all set to get underway later today at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino.

The game of poker’s showpiece series will last for roughly 50 days between May 29th and July 15th and will award a total of 62 bracelets across various tournaments with entry fees ranging from $500 to $111,111. This year Tournament Director Jack Effel has also promised that each day tournaments will be limited to just 11 levels of play in order to alleviate the burnout which players are prone to experience over the marathon poker series.

Last year, the WSOP managaed to attract 74,766 players to the series, which was only slightly down on the 75,672 players who turned out for WSOP 2012. This year it is expected that the turnout will hold steady, with some of the most talented players in the game counted amongst that number. One of the notable pros competing is Jason Mercier, a 26 year old player from Florida who has already notched up $9,871,075 in live tournament winnings. Mercier has also 2 gold bracelets to his name, including one in 2009 at the $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha event for $237,415, and again in 2011 at the $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha (Six Handed) event for $619,575. This time around, Mercier is confident enough on his WSOP chances that he announced via twitter recently:

“Looking for action at 3 to 1 on winning a bracelet this summer. Also willing to bet on myself vs almost anyone and lay small odds…”

Unsurprisingly, that offer didn’t include Phil Ivey (9), Daniel Negreanu (5) or Phil Hellmuth (13).

The WSOP now kicks-off in just a few short hours, starting with the $500 casino employees event and the $5,000 no-limit hold’em eight-max tournament. Don’t forget to check back here at Onlinepoker.net for all your daily WSOP updates.