Speaking of $5 million, that's the payout for first prize. The figure is twice as much as was awarded to last year's winner (a paltry $2.5 million). The table may not be large enough to accommodate all the bundles of 100s. This year, second place gets $3.5 million. Third place takes 2.5 million. Fourth place gets $1.5 million. Fifth place gets $1.1 million. To put this into proper context – the winner will automatically become the all-time leading money winner in WSOP history. The fifth place finisher will take home more prize money than Stu Ungar received, when he won his third world poker championship back in 1997. In all, 225 places will be paid $10,000 or more.

The prize pool for this event alone is a staggering $24,214,400 – a figure that no one could possibly have imagined, even recently. This brings up even more important questions about how to manage and accommodate the thousands of poker players who will certainly flock to Las Vegas to play in future World Series of Poker events.

posted by James at 1:56 PM