A Record Breaking Start to the 2009 WSOP

There are a lot of people in the Amazon Room for Day 1A of Event No. 4, the Stimulus Special. (Bodog Beat Image)"]

The 2009 WSOP set three records in three days in the first three open events of this year's series. A pretty auspicious start if you ask us.

First up was the $40,000 40th Anniversary Special event, which set the record for largest prize pool in a non-Main Event field thanks to 201 players ponying up $40,000 pf their money to get a shot at their share of the impressive $7,718,400 prizepool. The previous record was set at the 2007 WSOP and this event beat that mark out by over $600k.

The $1,500 Omaha Hi/Low 8-or-Better event drew out 918 entrants, becoming the largest live Omaha tournament ever played, but still not really anymore interesting than any other Omaha tournament. Ever.

The third consecutive event to set a record got underway today. Event #4 – $1,000 No-Limit Holdem (or the "Stimulus Special) - completely sold out, which means that 6,000 players have entered. 6,000. That's a lot of people. In fact, it's the largest non-Main Event field to date.

The record-setiing field will be spread over two starting days, 3,000 today and the rest tomorrow. As the field grew, more and more players decided to sign-up unable to pass up the opportunity to cash in big time, including Bodog poker pro David Williams who put up this tweet this morning:

Headed to the 1k NL event. I wasn't gonna play but how can you resist a chance at such a HUGE first prize for 1k???

Unofficial estimates put the total prize pool for the event over the $5 million mark, with the winner expected to walk away with more than $750k.

We'll keep you posted on the all the happening here at the Rio over the weekend and as these three events progress and wrap up. Stay tuned for your 2009 WSOP updates and don't forget to qualify online for the 2009 WSOP through Bodog Poker with a $12,000 WSOP prize package.