2024 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event Preview

The $10,000 buy-in 2024 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event, poker’s most prestigious annual tournament, kicks off Wednesday with the first of four Day 1 starting flights.

Last year’s world championship event attracted a 55-year record 10,043 entrants, with Daniel Weinman, a member of Team Lucky, taking it down for $12.1 million.

Another Record-Breaking Year?

Jamie Gold, the 2006 champion, held onto the record for winning the largest Main Event ever for 17 years — 8,773 players. But last year’s tournament cruised right on by that mark.

The question the poker world is asking heading into Wednesday is, will the 2024 WSOP Main Event set another record? World Series of Poker turnout nearly across the board this summer has been up, which is certainly a good sign. But there’s no way to really know the answer to that question until registration closes on Day 2d (July 8).

One thing is certain, it’s going to be a massive field. Chances are strong attendance will be significantly higher than the 2006 Main Event, and potentially even bigger than one year ago.

2024 WSOP Main Event Schedule

How to Follow the Action

Each day, until the last card of the tournament is dealt and a world champion is crowned on July 17, you will find live reporting coverage right here at PokerNews, and livestreaming coverage daily on PokerGO. Following the conclusion of the tournament, CBS Sports Network will produce a condensed, rebroadcast version of the Main Event with longtime commentators Norman Chad and Lon McEachern in the booth.

There will be more coverage for this year’s Main Event than ever before. From start to finish, poker fans will be able to catch the action of the most important and exciting event of the year.

PokerGO’s WSOP Streaming Schedule

World Series of Poker Main Event History

In 1970, at Binion’s Horseshoe on Fremont Street, future Poker Hall of Famer Johnny Moss won the first ever WSOP Main Event via a vote. Moss also won the tournament in 1971 and 1974, and is one of two players to have won poker’s world championship event twice (Stu Ungar won it in 1980, 1981, and 1997).

The Main Event is where legends are made. Take, Phil Hellmuth, for example. The “Poker Brat” ended Johnny Chan’s bid for a three-peat in 1989 when he defeated Chan heads-up for the title, beating out 178 players to win $755,000.

Hellmuth pulled the upset and won his first bracelet, and now easily holds the record with 17 bracelets to his name. The Main Event went from having less than 10 players in 1970 to fields of nearly 200 each year in the late 1980s. There was some growth again in the 1990s with 350 entrants when Scotty Nguyen won it in 1998. From 1992-2006, the field increased annually.

When Chris Moneymaker won it in 2003 for $2.5 million, 839 people participated. Moneymaker, an amateur who swooped in and conquered an event that pros had long dominated, helped create a “poker boom,” leading to an exponential growth in poker’s popularity.

The next year — 2004 — Greg Raymer beat a field of 2,576 entrants for $5 million, a 300% spike compared to 2003, the largest year-over-year percentage increase in Main Event history. It would again double in 2005, the year Joe Hachem took it down, and has remained above 6,300 players per year ever since, excluding the 2020 COVID year.

Greg Raymer Reflects on Historic WSOP Main Event Win 20 Years Later

2024 WSOP Main Event FAQs