Welcome to Event #20: $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em
It's time to raise eyebrows for anyone who has embraced the most popular discipline in poker, the phenomenon of No-Limit Hold'em as one of the toughest no-limit events of the summer gets underway today at the 2018 World Series of Poker.
With a $5,000 price tag, the Event #20 belongs to the upper scale of tournament buy-ins. That naturally attracts the vast majority of prolific tournament grinders who are eager to outlast a largely competitive field and take home the gold wristwear along with a juicy top-prize.
While the so-called "vanilla" $5k NLH event has been regularly featured on the WSOP schedule since 2003, this year is a breakout year for the new concept that has overwhelmed poker arenas all over the globe: the big blind ante. Players should, therefore, be able to squeeze in more hands per level, getting an even more comfortable radius of action with their 25,000 chips they'll obtain in return for their registration slips.
That being said, it's hard not to expect some great battles of the talents from all corners of the world. A look at the past editions reveals some iconic names among the previous champions with the likes of Johnny Chan, TJ Cloutier and Scott Seiver all on that list.
Last year belonged to Argentinian player Andres Korn who defeated a field of 623 to claim his first bracelet together with $618,285. Korn prevailed in a heads-up match against Pete Chen, one of the hardest-grinding players in the world.
Now it's time to begin the quest for the new champion with Day 1 of the four-day event starting Friday, June 8 at 3 p.m. local time. A total of 10 levels are slated for play on the first day and all of them will last 60 minutes.
PokerNews live reporting team will be on their feet to provide live updates from the first riffle all the way until baggings. Make sure to come back to see who'll make it through and who will be forced to try their luck elsewhere.
Previous $5k NLH event winners:
| Year | Entries | Winner | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | 110 | Eli Balas | United States | $220,000 |
| 2003 | 127 | Johnny Chan | United States | $224,400 |
| 2004 | 254 | Thomas Keller | United States | $382,020 |
| 2005 | 466 | TJ Cloutier | United States | $657,100 |
| 2006 | 622 | Jeff Cabanillas | United States | $818,546 |
| 2007 | 640 | James Mackey | United States | $730,740 |
| 2008 | 731 | Scott Seiver | United States | $755,891 |
| 2009 | 655 | Brian Lemke | United States | $692,658 |
| 2010 | 792 | Jason DeWitt | United States | $818,959 |
| 2011 | 865 | Allen Bari | United States | $874,116 |
| 2012 | 1,001 | Pete Vilandos | United States | $952,694 |
| 2013 | 784 | Matt Perrins | United Kingdom | $792,275 |
| 2014 | 696 | David Miscikowski | United States | $719,707 |
| 2015 | 422 | Michael Wang | United States | $466,120 |
| 2016 | 863 | Yue Du | China | $800,586 |
| 2017 | 623 | Andres Korn | Argentina | $618,285 |