The poker boom is over, huh? Just a fad, something that will go away with time, huh?
Tell that to the more than 7,000 people who entered the 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event, making it the second-largest tournament field ever.
The first three 'Day 1' flight saw 4,928 people pony up $10,000 to play in the prestigious event at the Rio in Las Vegas, and as of Wednesday night at least 2,100 more had registered for the final opening flight, scheduled to start at 12 p.m. Thursday.
More than 1,600 of the 2,314 players who played in Wednesday's Day 1c survived to play another day, including six players with Tucson-area connections. Topping that list is Garrett Adelstein, whose chip stack of 103,125 was 41st from that flight.
The other local survivors from Wednesday: Joshua Gaibel (28,800), Zachary Goldberg (17,775), Gene Nava (40,800), Kiley Scott (40,100) and Nadim Shabou (18,350).
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They'll all return to the felt Friday in Day 2a, which is combined with more than 800 who made it out of Day 1a, including Tucson-area players Mark Brement (22,500) and Steve Schulman (35,150).
Two other locals — Richard Allen Jr. (34,600) and Lee Gaines (56,950) — made it through Day 1b on Tuesday and will play Saturday in Day 2b with the players who survive today's Day 1d.
A complete sellout of all 3,800 seats available Thursday would put the final field tally at 8,728, just shy of the record 8,773 who entered in 2006 - just prior to the Bush administration pushing through legislation meant to curb online poker in the U.S.
The backlash of that legislation, known as the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, was considered a direct cause for the 2007-2009 Main Event fields dropping into the 6,000s.
But considering that act JUST went into effect in June of this year, and still doesn't seem to be getting in the way of people playing online in this country (I can still deposit money onto sites whenever I want), there's been another rise in interest in poker.
The 56 preliminary events at the WSOP this year saw a 20 percent rise in attendance from 2009, which like every year since Harrah's bought the series in 2004 has seen the participation numbers increase.
