Welcome to Day 1 of the 2017 WSOP and Event #2: $10,000 Tag Team No-Limit Hold'em Championship
Today is the day that poker players from around the world have had marked on their calendars for a long time. The 48th annual World Series of Poker began this morning with Event #1: The $565 Casino Employees No-Limit Hold'em and continues on with Event #2: The $10,000 Tag Team No-Limit Hold'em Championship
Teams from all over the planet will take their seats to battle it out for the first ever $10,000 Tag Team No-Limit Hold'em gold bracelet. Last year's series had a $1,000 Tag Team No-Limit Hold'em event and attracted 863 team entries. The inaugural event was won by poker pros Doug Polk and Ryan Fee, who took home $76,679 each. The event marked the first team tournament in 34 years at the WSOP and was well received within the poker community.
This year some exciting teams have already announced their participation. The most decorated Olympian of all time and 23-time gold medalist Michael Phelps joins Antonio Esfandiari, Brian Rast and Jeff Gross to form an impressive squad. Last year's Main Event final table member Kenny Hallaert teams up with Steven van Zadelhoff, Adam Owen and Benny Glaser all hunting for some gold together. There are sure to be a plethora of professionals and big names to take part in this first ever Tag Team Championship Event, so look for many other strong and exciting teams to emerge throughout the day.
Players begin the day at 3:00 p.m. with 50,000 starting chips and will play 10 levels with blinds going up every 60 minutes. Late registration will conclude at the end of eight levels of play at 11:00 p.m. This tournament is a freeze-out and there are some key elements worth noting. All teams must register together. Each teammate must check in at their table prior to the end of the registration period and play at least one round of blinds or their team will be disqualified. Players may tag in a teammate anytime he/she is not in an active hand and, lastly, this event has no breaks.
Day 2 will start back up at 2:00 p.m. tomorrow, when blinds will start at 1,000/2,000 with a 300 ante. Play will continue for another 10-and-a-half levels of play before calling it a night at roughly 1:30 a.m. Day 3 will commence at 2:00 p.m. Friday when blinds will be at 10,000/20,000 with a 3,000 ante. Play will complete when a winner is crowned and each teammate will receive a coveted gold bracelet.
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The PokerNews team is proud to be providing coverage for the entire series, so stay tuned for all your live updates on the action.