Players chase multimillion-dollar dreams in WSOP’s Main Event

Two things that can always be counted on during the World Series of Poker’s Main Event:

■ Mike Matusow will spend a good portion of his time offering one of his signature rants for anyone within earshot. (Sunday’s spiel from “The Mouth” included a suggestion that the National Flag Football League replace the NFL. “You can’t touch quarterbacks anyway,” he said.)

■ The first day will feature the smallest field, especially when it’s on Fourth of July weekend.

The $10,000 buy-in No-limit Texas Hold ’em World Championship started Sunday at the Rio Convention Center, and for the third consecutive year, fewer people signed up for Day 1A than in the previous year. But for those who played the first starting flight, there was still plenty of excitement in the Brasilia Room.

“There’s so many people playing, and it’s so much fun that I still get a chill,” said Jonathan Duhamel, the 2010 Main Event champion. “It’s only Day 1, the tournament is very early, but you can feel something in the air different because it’s the Main Event.”

Day 1A featured 741 players, down from the 771 who played the first starting flight in 2014. Professional poker player Jorryt van Hoof of Eindhoven, Netherlands, was the unofficial leader at the final break of the evening with 156,500 chips, more than five times the starting stack of 30,000.

The Main Event continues at noon today at the Rio with Day 1B, and the true measure of the size of the field will come Tuesday when the majority of players register for Day 1C.

The tournament, which features a guaranteed 1,000 places paid, runs through July 14.

The final nine players return Nov. 8 at the Rio’s Penn & Teller Theater to battle it out for the estimated $8 million first-place prize. Last year, Sweden’s Martin Jacobson topped a field of 6,683 entrants and collected $10 million.

The Main Event began with a brief opening ceremony that included WSOP executive director Ty Stewart and tournament director Jack Effel. Jacobson was scheduled to play the opening day and give the traditional “Shuffle up and deal” command but was ill and replaced by Ireland’s Donnacha O’Dea, who has played every Main Event but one since 1982 and reached the final table in 1983.

“(Saturday) was July 4th, America’s day,” Stewart said. “Today, is the world championship of poker, a celebration of the game played all around the world as all are welcome here.”

Duhamel was the lone former Main Event winner spotted in the field Sunday, and the resident of Boucherville, Quebec, unofficially was in the top 10 with approximately 130,000 chips after he doubled up with a full house just before the 10:15 p.m. break. Duhamel won the $111,111 buy-in Big One for One Drop tournament last month.

Van Hoof and Andoni Larrabe of Spain were the only two members of last year’s final table to play Sunday. Van Hoof, who finished third in 2014, won a massive pot during the fourth level of play to eliminate Matthew Lapossie and jump into the overall lead.

“Last year’s Main Event at the final table was the most memorable and best, sickest experience of my life,” Van Hoof said. “So being able to play the Main Event again now, obviously I’m really, really eager.”

The first elimination of the Main Event came only 30 minutes in when Mohammed Ayyash’s aces went down to the three queens of bracelet winner Barney Boatman of England.

Matusow, a Las Vegas resident and four-time WSOP bracelet winner, got off to a strong start during the first two levels. He had close to 60,000 in chips with one level remaining before play stopped.

Eight-time bracelet winner Erik Seidel was eliminated shortly after the dinner break. The Las Vegas resident has cashed once in the Main Event since he finished fourth in 1999.

Contact reporter David Schoen at dschoen@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5203. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidSchoenLVRJ.