2019 WSOP May 30: 50th Annual World Series of Poker Begins

Last updated on May 31st, 2019

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The 50^th Annual World Series of Poker set its first of 89 bracelet events into motion on Wednesday, May 29 at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino.

This series of articles will run the course of the 2019 WSOP, offering a daily rundown of the basics of each day’s tournaments. For example, readers will see the basic numbers of each tournament, end-of-day results without the wordiness of usual WSOP recaps.

Any necessary explanations of big news will be at the end of each day’s posting.

For the most part, these pieces will be simple: just the basics. Instead of scrolling through wordy summaries and spending an hour clicking on tabs and menus, the information will be laid out here in these daily articles.

On May 29, this is what happened.

Event 1: $500 Casino Employees NLHE – Day 1

The first bracelet event of #WSOP50 starts at 11am with the $500 Casino Employees Event.
Registration and one re-entry available for the first nine levels. pic.twitter.com/3AqgVPkDHH
— WSOP – World Series of Poker (@WSOP) May 29, 2019

Total entries: 686
Prize pool: $298,410
Players paid: 103
Minimum payout: $727
Winner payout: $62,345
Day 1 players remaining: 103
Chip leader: Cosmo Andoloro (USA) – 650,000
Day 2 starting time: 12 noon

Event 2: $10K Super Turbo Bounty NLHE – Day 1

The first #WSOP50 open bracelet event starts at noon, $10,000 Super Turbo Bounty. Registration open for 12 20-minute levels with NO re-entry. Eliminate a player to collect a $3,000 bounty as they play down to 6 players. pic.twitter.com/kW2zemQwvi
— WSOP – World Series of Poker (@WSOP) May 29, 2019

Total entries: 204
Prize pool: $1,917,600
Players paid: 31
Minimum payout: $10,238
Winner payout: $345,669
Day 1 players remaining: 6
Final table chip counts:
Asher Conniff (USA) – 4,215,000
Loren Klein (USA) – 3,130,000
Ali Imsirovic (USA) – 2,180,000
Daniel Negreanu (Canada) – 1,015,000
Ping Liu (USA) – 990,000
Brian Green (USA) – 720,000
Final table payouts thus far:
7^th place: Martijn Gerrits (Netherlands) – $38,823
8^th place: Zachary Clark (USA) – $29,650
9^th place: Cary Katz (USA) – $23,224
Day 2 starting time: 12 noon

Notable Information

The first official day of WSOP events was a mix of casino employees and high-stakes players. The first group was set to play at a normal pace and over the course of three days, while the latter played a turbo structure. That made for an uncharacteristically fast tournament that began its final table before the first day of play even ended.

Expect the amount of action to increase significantly in the next two days. The first WSOP gold bracelet winner will be discovered on May 30, and the excitement will escalate from there through the weekend.