Event #32: $1,000 Seniors No-Limit Hold'em Championship
Day 1 Started
2019 World Series of Poker
Event #32: $1,000 Seniors No-Limit Hold'em Championship
Day: 1
Event Info
Final Results
Event Info
Level Info
2019 World Series of Poker
Buy-in
$1,000
Prize Pool
$5,324,400
Entries
5,916
Level
40
Blinds
600,000 / 1,200,000
Ante
1,200,000
Event #32: $1,000 Seniors No-Limit Hold'em Championship: Day 1 Begins at 10.00am
The four-day Event #32: $1,000 Seniors No-Limit Hold'em Championship begins today at 10 a.m.
Every year, thousands of players convene in Las Vegas for this over-50’s event, with attendance growing steadily over the last few Series. This year, field size predictions from Seniors players themselves tend into the upper 6,000's; we’ll know by the end of late registration (Level 8, around 8:15 p.m.) what kind of odds the 2019 WSOP Seniors champion will have to overcome to win a bracelet this year.
To reach Day 2, today’s competitors will play through 10 one-hour levels, with a 75-minute dinner break scheduled after Level 6 (around 4:40 p.m.). The slow structure has players start out with 20,000 in chips, blinds starting at 100/100, with one re-entry available.
Last year’s winner Matthew Davis saw off international competition from a 5,918-strong field to take the Seniors’ bracelet and $662,676. Bill Stabler, who finished second, had made a Senior Event final table in 2012; this event attracts returning players year on year. Entrants take on the largest Senior field available as part of a larger WSOP tournament schedule, combined with Event #39 ($1,000 Super Seniors No-Limit Hold’em) or as a standalone event.
As George Bernard Shaw - and Doyle Brunson - famously said, “We don’t stop playing because we grow old. We grow old because we stop playing,” and no one can accuse Senior runners of the latter.
Level: 1
Blinds: 100/100
Ante: 0
Shuffle Up and Deal!
Level 1
: 100/100, 0 ante
The cards are in the air and Event #32: $1,000 Seniors No-Limit Hold'em Championship has begun!
TJ Cloutier Kicks Off Seniors Event
Level 1
: 100/100, 0 ante
Jack Effel announced to the field, "This year, the WSOP turns 50, so even the WSOP can participate!"
He continued, "Without a doubt this is my favourite event because all of you are here for one reason - to play poker and have a great time, win or lose. You guys are the role models for all poker players."
He then introduced a special guest to announce the start of play: TJ Cloutier.
"Tied ninth place on the all-time WSOP bracelet list with six bracelets, $4.7 million in lifetime earnings, he pretty much wrote the strategy on tournament poker," Effel reminded the assembled players. Cloutier himself then took the mic.
"It's a real honour to be here. I have one question for you: when you play back home are you probably the oldest player in the game? Not here! Play hard; shuffle up and deal!"
Players Didn't Arrive on Time to Just Watch the Action
Level 1
: 100/100, 0 ante
This year's Seniors Event features an increased starting stack of 20,000 (the announcement of which today was met with a warm round of applause). A first round of the Brasilia room - a cavernous sea of seats taken up wholly by the seniors today - saw action in every corner.
Paul W. Lee was just one of the players putting their stack to use with the blinds just 100/100: He called an early position preflop raise to 300 in position, as did the big blind. On a flop of 
, the initial raiser followed up with a bet of 600, again called in both spots. When the 
arrived on the turn, the initial raiser check-folded to Lee's 1,600 bet, while the player in the big blind called. The big blind checked the 
river and Lee threw out a hefty 6,000 bet that was good to take the pot down.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
24,000 | 24,000 |
The Big 50
Level 1
: 100/100, 0 ante
Thousands of grinders meeting the minimum age requirement of 50 years old have packed the Rio Convention Center for what could be the biggest WSOP seniors event of all time.
Registration is already over the 4,400 players mark, and late registration runs until the end of Level 8, so there's still about 10 hours left for the field to get even bigger. The cavernous Pavilion Room is entirely filled with players for this event, the Brasilia and Miranda rooms are at capacity, and most of the tables in the Amazon Room are currently dedicated to the seniors.
With all players eligible for one re-entry, the 2019 Seniors No-Limit event is on pace to break last year's all-time record of
5,919 entries. The 2018 champion, Matthew Davis, took home a $662,983 first-place prize, and that total could very well be even bigger when this year's champion is determined.
Bracelets and Hall of Fame Entries Dot the Field
Level 1
: 100/100, 0 ante
You never know what sort of line-up a start of day table draw will give you. Sometimes the Seniors event can seat a first-time WSOP player next to bracelet winners and formidable high stakes greats of the game.
Tom McEvoy is currently playing on a table full of gregarious characters in the corner of Brasilia. The author, player and member of the Poker Hall of Fame is certainly one of the tough spots. The winner of the WSOP Main Event in 1983, McEvoy has won a total of four bracelets to date and is looking for a fifth this week.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
20,000 | 20,000 |
|
20,000 | 20,000 |
|
20,000 | 20,000 |
|
20,000 | 20,000 |
|
20,000 | 20,000 |
|
20,000 | 20,000 |
|
20,000 | 20,000 |
|
20,000 | 20,000 |
Level: 2
Blinds: 100/200
Ante: 0
Singer Among the Best in the Field
Level 2
: 100/200, 0 ante
Players seated at David Singer's table are competing against a man with four decades of proven results.
Singer's first cash came at the 1978 WSOP, where he finished second in the $1,000 Seven-Card Razz event for $9,600. He started becoming a fixture at the WSOP in the early 2000s, making the final table of the 2003 WSOP Main Event and finishing 9th in the year that Chris Moneymaker won the championship.
Fast forward to the 2010s and Singer is still at it, and he comes into this event on the heels of a sixth-place finish in the $1,500 Seven-Card Stud event. His career is filled with money finish across multiple poker variants, with plenty of success in No-Limit Hold'em. His career earnings currently stand at $4,452,965, and perhaps he will add to that total in this year's $1,000 Seniors No-Limit Hold'em event.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
22,000 | 22,000 |