The first new event on the 2012 World Series of Poker schedule was a hit before the first card was even dealt. The $3,000 Heads-up NLHE/PLO tournament reached its cap of 512 players, selling out well before the start of the tournament.

The tournament itself is one of the most unique in recent memory, combining two of the most popular poker variants in a heads-up tournament format. Day 1 saw three rounds of action, with 256 players winning their first round match, and then 128 of them moving on to Round 3. The final round on Tuesday will see the tournament field reduced to 64 players (which will burst the money bubble, and all 64 players will receive something for their efforts).

On Wednesday the field will play another three rounds, –going down to 32 players, then 16, and then 8.

On Thursday the final 8 players will reconvene at the Rio to play three more rounds: playing down to 4 and then down to 2, before the final two players square off for the title and the WSOP bracelet.

Each player eliminated during the round of 64 on Wednesday will receive $3,395 (one of the smallest min-cashes you’ll ever see considering the tournament had a $3,000 buy-in) with over $200,000 set aside for the winner of the tournament. Here is a look at the complete payout schedule for the event:

* 1st: $207,708

* 2nd: $128,660

* 3rd and 4th: $73,655

* 5th — 8th: $28,409

* 9th — 16th: $9,644

* 17th — 32nd: $5,144

Here is a look at the 64 players who will be moving on to Day 2 of the tournament on Wednesday:

1. Andrew Pantling

2. Todd Holley

3. Julian Powell

4. Philippe Boucher

5. John Racener

6. Benjamin Vinson

7. Cory Wood

8. Trevor Pope

9. Sam Stein

10. David Chiu

11. Gregg Merkow

12. Vojtech Ruzicka

13. David Nicholson

14. Alexander Venovski

15. Darren Kramer

16. Justin Bonomo

17. Leif Force

18. Gordon Vayo

19. George Lind

20. Jeremy Ausmus

21. George Wolff

22. Jared Jaffe

23. Jose-Luis Velador

24. Byron Kaverman

25. Mike Sexton

26. David Emmons

27. Sampo Ryynanen

28. Andy Frankenberger

29. Andy Seth

30. Joshua Pollock

31. Alan Keating

32. Jason Koon

33. Adam Kornuth

34. Jonathan Clancy

35. Matthew Bucaric

36. Eric Froehlich

37. Bryce Yockey

38. Marcello Marigliano

39. Josh Arieh

40. Sebastion Saffari

41. Thomas Gabriel

42. Matt Jarvis

43. Annette Obrestad

44. Ryan Franklin

45. Tres Davis

46. Jared Solomon

47. Simeon Naydenov

48. Mark Radoja

49. Ayaz Mahmood

50. Ashkan Razavi

51. Dimitar Danchev

52. Yevgeniy Timoshenko

53. David Williams

54. Kory Kilpatrick

55. Raj Kattamuri

56. David Benefield

57. Victor Ramdin

58. Jim Collopy

59. Justin Smith

60. David Schnettler

61. Tim West

62. Scott Davies

63. Guillaume Darcourt

64. *unnamed player*

Tags: Ausmus, David Chiu, David Emmons, David Nicholson, George Wolff, Heads Up Tournament, Holley, Jaffe, John Racener, Julian Powell, Justin Bonomo, Mike Sexton, Philippe Boucher, Play Three, Plo, Popular Poker Variants, Ruzicka, Sampo, Vayo, World Series of Poker

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 30th, 2012 at 9:30 am and is filed under Poker News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.