WSOP Main Event field down to 1,875 players

The preliminaries have wrapped up and the World Series of Poker’s Main Event now kicks into overdrive.

Following an off-day Wednesday, the 1,875 players remaining from the 6,865-participant starting field will return to the Rio on Thursday to compete in the $10,000 buy-in No Limit Hold’em World Championship.

Sometime in the early morning hours of July 20, the nine-player final table will be determined with the participants returning to the Rio in November to play for the top prize of $8.7 million. Eight of the nine final players will win in excess of $1 million.

Since last Thursday, the field has been whittled down as well-known names and poker legends were eliminated. Defending 2010 champion Jonathan Duhamel of Canada was knocked out of the competition on Monday.

The current leader in the Main Event is Ben Lamb, of Tulsa, Okla., with 551,600 in tournament chips.

Lamb is enjoying one of the best runs ever experienced by a player at the World Series of Poker. He won his first-ever gold bracelet in the $10,000 buy-in Pot Limit Omaha Championship on June 24, earning $814,436. He also has second-, eighth- and 12th-place finishes at this year’s tournament and has won more than $1.3 million total.

Lamb is currently ranked second in the World Series of Poker Player of the Year standings, which will also include results from this year’s World Series of Poker Europe, which will be played in France in the fall.

Going into Thursday, seven former Main Event champions remain in the competition; Tom McEvoy (1983), Joe Cada (2009), Phil Hellmuth Jr., (1989), Berry Johnston (1986), Huck Seed (1996), Carlos Mortensen (2001) and Robert Varkony (2002).

The top nonpoker celebrities remaining in the competition are actors Jason Alexander (167,000 in chips) and Brad Garrett (46,000 in chips).

Four former World Series of Poker Players of the Year are still playing, including
Daniel Negreanu (2004), Allen Cunningham (2005), Erick Lindgren (2008) and Jeffrey Lisandro (2009).