The buzz inside the walls of the Rio extends beyond just the tournaments on the 2013 World Series of Poker schedule. Online poker in Nevada is a very, very hot topic right now, and WSOP.com is making a lot of noise.
While the site has yet to launch, you can head to the Lambada Room of the Rio or look for one of the beautiful and friendly WSOP.com ladies walking the hallways to sign up for a free, personal WSOP.com online poker account. This is a great way to get a jump on the site's registration, and plenty of people have already taken this opportunity.
What's more is that the WSOP will be hosting daily raffles for everyone that has taken the time to register for WSOP.com at the Rio. What can you win? Plenty of fantastic prizes including 36 WSOP seats!
Players 21 years of age and older who sign up for a WSOP.com account will automatically be entered into the “36-Seat Giveaway” where a randomly-selected winner will win a seat into the next day’s first WSOP gold bracelet event. One of the events eligible in this promotion is the $111,111 One Drop High Roller No-Limit Hold’em tournament that is expected to feature a $10,000,000 prize pool and allow you to play poker with the biggest names in the game. In total, $182,333 in WSOP seats, including a seat to the WSOP Main Event, are being given away during this one-of-a-kind WSOP.com promotion.
In addition to the 36-Seat Giveaway, a “Hot Seat” promotion will allow any player who signs up for a WSOP.com online account and wears their WSOP.com patch on their chest at the table while playing an event to be randomly selected to receive 500 bonus dollars deposited directly into their WSOP.com online account once the site has received all regulatory approvals and launches.
With 62 WSOP gold bracelet events and three winners promised for the Main Event, this promotion includes $32,000 worth of value to those participating.
A players bust and seats become open, tables are broke and new players fill those seats. That means the table lineups often change, as was the case with Table 376, which is now perhaps the toughest in the room. Have a look:
We caught up with David Sklansky as he scooped a 7,000 pot. The action was completed when we walked up, but Sklansky had showed a board of , making a full house for the win. Sklansky is sitting at 19,000, just above the average stack size of 17,800.
After an unknown player brought it in for 100 with the and Greg Mueller, who finished third in last night's Event #8 $2,500 Eight-Game Mix finale, completed with the , 1998 World Series of Poker champ Scotty Nguyen called with the .
Mueller then checked fourth street, Nguyen bet and the unknown player called. Mueller got out of the way and the dealer put out fifth. Just as soon as he did, the unknown player folded before Nguyen even had a chance to bet.
"No, don't do that, baby," Nguyen said with a big smile before flashing the .
The official numbers are in. Today's tournament has drawn 210 entries (just two shy of last year's field) and created a prize pool of $987,000. The eventual winner will take home $266,503 and the top 24 players will each earn a payday.