WPT Doyle Brunson World Poker Classic Presents Unique Buy-In Strategy

Poker pro Carlos Mortensen is among the leaders after Day 1 of the WPT Doyle Brunson 5 Diamond World Poker Classic. (Bodog Beat Image)" /]

While most major poker tournaments feature several starting days during which players can register for the event, the WPT Doyle Brunson 5 Diamond World Poker Classic (hereafter referred to as the WPTDB5DWPC) offers something a little different. Instead of two versions of Day 1, players can register up through Level 8 of the tournament, which translates to late afternoon on Day 2. This brings into play a whole registration strategy and trying to figure out when buying in is the most   +EV decision.

With that in mind, only about 200 players showed up at the beginning of play yesterday at the Bellagio, but by the time five levels had concluded the field had grown to the official Day 1 entrant number of 292. Now, this number is about 200 players short of last year's full attendee amount. So, the event will be looking to add that amount today during the first three levels of play, which get underway at Noon PT. With only 235 players left standing after Day 1 of play, the field size could almost double by the end of the third level today.

Notable players near the top of that remaining player list include Jon "PearlJammer" Turner, Carlos Mortensen, Antonio Esfandiari, David Benyamine and Jimmy "gobboboy" Fricke. Others a bit further down the chip counts include Kenna James, Miami John Cernuto, Kenny Tran, Josh Arieh, Amnon Filippi, Shannon Shorr, John Juanda, Scotty Nguyen, JC Tran and Bodog poker pro David Williams.

As you can imagine, we'll have a better idea of what kind of prizepool we're looking at for this year's WPTDB5DWPC. However, we can say that if they hit a number close to last year's, that event paid out $1.5 million to winner Chino Rheem. Stay tuned for more updates to see who decides to register on Day 2 and if that will end up being the correct decision.