10 THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT A VERY BIG DAY 1C MAIN EVENT FIELD
We won't tell you exactly how big until the official numbers are in, but, just trust us, this year's Main Event is big.  Day 1C saw well over 3,000 players sign up at their last shot at the $10 million first place payday, and registration is still open through the end of dinner break.  While we wait for the stragglers like Phil Hellmuth to hop in the action and for the rest of the field to rturn from dinner break, check out some of the higlights so far in today's edition of ten things you should know about the Main Event:

1. We’ve got thousands of players in the field today, but there is one famous railbird who seems to be drawing just as much attention as any player. Emmy award-winning actor Aaron Paul of “Breaking Bad” fame has been spotted on the rail of the Pavilion Room throughout the day. First, player Jason Koon Tweeted a photo suggesting the man on the rail looked like the performer, but later it was confirmed to actually be Paul, who appears to be quite the poker fan.


2. For the first time since the start of the Main Event, we only have one past winner on the feature table on the ESPN stage, 2009 winner Joe Cada. However, Cada does have two of something to make up for it—bracelets. The young poker pro broke the dry spell dating back to 2001 of Main Event Champs being unable to win a bracelet after winning poker’s biggest title by taking down the $10,000 Six-Handed No Limit Hold’em event.

3. After three levels of action, several notables have already exited this year’s Main Event, including past November Niners Ivan Demidov and Phil Collins, Steve Billirakis, Kathy Liebert, and Sam Trickett.

4. It has been four years since the Main Event attendance has grown from the previous year, but we broke that streak today, as this field is guaranteed to be larger than the 6,352 players who took part in 2013. While we may not quite reach the 7,319 players we had in 2010, but with registration open through the dinner break, there is still time to get more people in action on Day 1C, which is already the single-largest starting day flight of the Main Event in history.

5. What will be Day 2 for these players will actually be the fifth of ten days of Main Event action in this year’s event. If you are lucky enough to make it through the day today, you’ll come back on Wednesday for Day 2C, while Day 2AB will return to the Rio on Tuesday.

6. Mark DeSomma won his seat into the Main Event thanks to a sponsored sweepstakes on WSOP.com and prepared for playing for the first time by reading six-time bracelet winner Daniel Negreanu’s book. His goal for today is a modest one: survive and enjoy the experience, which he talked about in this video interview.

7. In 2009, Phil Ivey finished seventh in the Main Event, earning over $1.4 million. Every year, the eyes of the poker world are upon him as he enters the Main Event to take his shot at returning to the final table. He is off to a good start so far, more than doubling the 30,000-chip starting stack to 70,000 heading into the dinner break.

8. So far, all seven of the Main Event Champions who have played this year’s event have advanced. Today, there are at least eight more taking their shot, including Jonathan Duhamel, Carlos Mortensen, Greg Raymer, and the Rio’s first Main Event winner, Joe Hachem. We’re only three levels into the day, but we’ve already lost one from this group, 2006 Champ Jamie Gold.

9. So far this year, Daniel Negreanu has nine cashes, two runner-up appearances, and currently sits fourth in this year’s Player of the Year race. As the reigning Player of the Year, he also did Shuffle Up and Deal honors today, where his banner was unfurled and BLUFF Magazine’s Lance Bradley presented him with his buy-in to this event, the prize that came with winning the POY contest.

10. NBA player Paul Pierce, who was drafted 10th overall back in 1998, has one NBA Championship title, but no WSOP cashes to his credit yet. He is trying to fix that today though, playing in his second WSOP Main Event. It was a rough start for the baller, who flopped trips only to lose two-thirds of his stack to his opponent’s straight, but he has rallied back over starting stack to stay in the hunt. He isn’t the only athlete in the field today either. Soccer start Gerard Pique, cricketer Shane Warne, NFL player Richard Seymour, and UFC fighter Martin Kampann are all in action today as well.