After over a month of poker tournament, after poker tournament, after poker tournament, the 2011 World Series of Poker had its first full day-off on Wednesday as the remaining players from the two Day 2 flights of the 2011 Main Event get set for Wednesday’s Day 3; the first day when the entire field of the 2011 WSOP Main Event will be combined. With plenty of big names like Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth, and Patrik Antonius still in the mix, it should be a wild ride on Day 3.

Of the 6,856 players that registered for the Main Event, a total of 1,864 players are still in the running for the most coveted prize in poker, but only 639 of the remaining players will even cash in the Main Event, with one of those players destined to take home the $8.7 million first-prize, as well as the title of 2011 World Series of Poker Main Event Champion, adding their name to a very exclusive list that includes:

* 1970 –Johnny Moss (voted)

* 1971 –Johnny Moss

* 1972 –Amarillo Slim Preston

* 1973 –Walter “Puggy” Pearson

* 1974 –Johnny Moss

* 1975 –Brian “Sailor” Roberts

* 1976 –Doyle Brunson

* 1977 –Doyle Brunson

* 1978 –Bobby Baldwin

* 1979 –Hal Fowler

* 1980 –Stu Ungar

* 1981 –Stu Ungar

* 1982 –Jack Straus

* 1983 –Tom McEvoy

* 1984 –Jack Keller

* 1985 –Bill Smith

* 1986 –Berry Johnston

* 1987 –Johnny Chan

* 1988 –Johnny Chan

* 1989 –Phil Hellmuth

* 1990 –Mansour Matloubi

* 1991 –Brad Daugherty

* 1992 –Hamid Dastmalchi

* 1993 –Jim Bechtel

* 1994 –Russ Hamilton

* 1995 –Dan Harrington

* 1996 –Huck Seed

* 1997 –Stu Ungar

* 1998 –Scotty Nguyen

* 1999 –Noel Furlong

* 2000 –Chris Ferguson

* 2001 –Juan Carlos Mortensen

* 2002 –Robert Varkonyi

* 2003 –Chris Moneymaker

* 2004 –Greg Raymer

* 2005 –Joe Hachem

* 2006 –Jamie Gold

* 2007 –Jerry Yang

* 2008 –Peter Eastgate

* 2009 –Joe Cada

* 2010 –Jonathan Duhamel

As we’ve seen in the years following Chris Moneymaker’s improbable win in 2003, winning the WSOP Main Event is sure path to poker stardom, and even players with few results prior to or after their WSOP title are still on the tips of most poker fans’ tongues –even if they are not considered “good” players.

Tags: Amarillo Slim Preston, Brad Daugherty, Chris Ferguson, Chris Moneymaker 2004, Dan Harrington, Daniel Negreanu, Doyle Brunson, Greg Raymer, Huck Seed, Jack Keller, Joe Hachem, Juan Carlos Mortensen, phil hellmuth, Puggy Pearson, Robert Varkonyi, Scotty Nguyen, Stu Ungar, World Series of Poker, World Series of Poker Main Event, WSOP Main Event

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 14th, 2011 at 7:23 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.