LAS VEGAS — The world’s richest series of card tournaments are beginning in Las Vegas amid the return of the websites that helped make them what they are today — a destination for everyone from the wealthiest gamblers to the everyday players who learned the game online.
The World Series of Poker — a seven-week extravaganza featuring trash talking, catch-up session, and ever-shifting stacks of chips— is getting underway one month after the return to the U.S. of legal online poker.
The Nevada-based site Ultimate Poker launched in April, and several companies, including the World Series itself, are expected to open rival sites in the coming weeks.
Organizers hope the online rebirth will help restart the poker craze of the 2000s.
Tens of thousands of poker fans from more than 100 countries still flock to Sin City each year to compete for millions of dollars in prize money and 62 World Series of Poker champion bracelets.
More than 3,000 players are expected to enter Saturday’s opening weekend “millionaire maker” tournament at the Rio hotel and casino off the Strip. It’s one of five events that pay out at least a million dollars.
For their $1,500 buy-in, players get chips worth $4,500 in game money.
They can’t cash out. As in all the tournaments, to win anything back, they must leverage their skill, guts and luck to make the final 10 percent of players.
“Just like in school — to get an A, you need 90 percent,” spokesman Seth Palansky said.
The World Series started on Wednesday, with an event for casino employees, and has already seen appearances by the game’s top players, including 13-time gold bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth, known as “the poker brat,” and nine-time bracelet winner Phil Ivey, sometimes called the Tiger Woods of poker. On Thursday, Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps ushered in the parade of celebrities who show up at the Rio each year.
