Record-Breaking Field Continues to Approach Maximum Capacity (360 seats left)

Update #1: As of 12:30 am, 3,736 players have registered, leaving a little more than 360 seats left. I'm willing to bet that the event will sell out before play begins at 12:00 noon.

Update #2: I would have lost that bet. Event #2 came close, but didn't quite sellout. (There were 1,881 entrants on Day 1b out of a possible 2,050.) Regardless, it shattered all the expectations of everyone I spoke to before the WSOP.

As of 8:15 pm PT, the total field for Event #2 has grown to 3,641 players, nearly 500 more than the previous record for a WSOP preliminary event. And it continues to grow, with a chance to reach the two-day capacity of 4,100 players.

The maximum capacity according to Harrah's is 2,050 players per day, at least until an additional ballroom is added with 65 more poker tables on June 12th. Day 1a was technically a sellout, but I received word earlier today that two players were no-shows, and had apparently taken the last-minute steps necessary to get their money refunded.

So there were 2,048 players for Day 1a, with another 1,593 already registered for Day 1b. There are about 450 seats still available for those who want to play, but I expect the event to completely sell out by noon tomorrow.

It seems that the night-shift tournament director I spoke with last night was on the mark when he predicted a sellout.

Where Does Everyone Play?
For those who are interested, this is how a capacity crowd breaks down:

Amazon Room: 158 tables*
Tropical Room: 23 tables
Near Buzio's Restaurant: 14 tables
Rio Poker Room: 10 tables

That adds up to 205 tables, for a capacity one-day field of 2,050. (*For the record, the total for the Amazon room does not include ESPN's TV table.)

The Amazon Room is the main WSOP tournament room, and the Tropical Room is directly across the hall, where satellites are played most of the time. Buzio's seafood restaurant is a long walk, almost all the way back to the casino floor, and the Rio's poker room is further still, between the sportsbook and the bowling alley.

Where is Brown Table #27?
Within the Amazon Room, the four "quadrants" are designated with different colors: blue, orange, green, and brown. (Yesterday, the brown section was to be red, which was difficult to distinguish from the orange. So they changed it.) There are 50 tables in the blue section, 45 in orange, 16 in green (including ESPN's TV table), and 48 in brown.

The curious thing? While the brown tables are labeled from 1-49, there is no brown table #27. It simply isn't there -- the numbered tables jump from #26 to #28. They originally planned to have five tables in a "high-stakes area," separated from the other tables by short walls about three feet high. It may have been a tight fit, so they removed one of the tables -- brown table #27.