WSOP ON ESPN TONIGHT, START OF MAIN EVENT

Main Event crowd on first day with defending champion, Greg Raymer in red at far right.

2005 WSOP on ESPN begans the countdown to the championship tonight. That’s right, Tuesday is poker night and scheduled for this evening is two hours of first run poker showing day #1 of the final event from the original of all poker tournaments, the World Series of Poker.

Tonight’s the special night that we get our first two hours of a scheduled twelve hours of original broadcast covering the $10,000 World Championship main event. Everyone that’s anyone in the world of poker plus a whole bunch of people that are not began the main event in one of the three first day flights. Tonight we see day’s #1A and #1B. Read Dr. Pauly’s Taopoker Blog for all the details not seen on the TV and follow this link to the Dr.’s blog written live as #1B unfolded, complete with photos. Read Pauly’s daily WSOP Wrap Up of the first two days, #1A and #1B, on the Poker Prof’s Blog for a complete WSOP experience. Visit our 2005 WSOP Photo gallery for a first hand look at all the action on the tournament floor, up close and sometimes personal.

Mike Matusow begins his journey to the final table.

The 2005 WSOP Championship main event welcomed 5,619 players, a record: and, a $52,818,610 prize pool, another record. The player that survives the monster sized field will win $7,500,000 from that huge prize purse and the very special platinum and diamond World Championship bracelet. All of the final table survivors are guaranteed to be members in the millionaire club, even ninth place pays a cool one million dollars. This event paid 560 places. A complete list of all the 2005 WSOP main event players finishing in the money along with the amount of cash they received is available at Poker Player Newspaper.

The first of tonight’s two hours of WSOP main Event excitement is scheduled to star at 8:00pm Eastern Time. Check out your local cable/satellite listings for scheduled times in your area. The 2005 WSOP rewrote the record book and made poker history. It is also the last World Series of Poker to crown its champion at the downtown Horseshoe Casino, the original source of tournament poker.