John Cynn didn’t even play a hand and he was the star of the show on Day 1A at the 2019 WSOP Main Event. As tradition, the defending champ kicked off the world championship event with the announcement of “Shuffle up and deal!” He then graciously sign dozens of autographs and took selfies with his adoring fans.
Cynn won $8.8 million last year and is now a famous poker celebrity after winning the most prestigious tournament in poker. But you wouldn’t even know it from his humble demeanor.
Day 1A saw over 1,300 players register for poker’s biggest event. That’s nearly 400 than the same session a year ago. And that’s great news for poker considering the 2018 Main Event was the second largest in history with 7,874 entries. Only the 2006 world championship event had more with 8,773. But some, including Poker Central’s Remko Rinkema, anticipate that the 2019 version to be the largest Main Event ever.
Let me call this right now: I think the @WSOP Main Event will be the biggest ever this year. An 11.5% increase compared to last year is enough to break the 2006 record.
— Remko Rinkema (@RemkoRinkema) July 3, 2019
‘Magic’ John Cynn Steals the Show
The 2019 WSOP Main Event kicked off with its defending champion announcing “shuffle up and deal.” CardsChat’s Jon Sofen was there to catch the introduction on video.
https://twitter.com/writing4poker/status/1146514514092810240
After stepping off stage, Cynn was greeted by dozens of smiling fans who all wanted a piece of the reigning champion. Some asked for selfies, others just wanted an autograph. For about 15-20 minutes, he showed why he’s a worthy champion as he signed every autograph and smiled for every picture.
One fan from Atlanta, Georgia, told Cynn he appreciated how “humble and gracious” he is and referred to the multi-millionaire as a “true champion.” It’s hard to disagree with those sentiments.
Once the autograph session concluded, CardsChat caught up with Cynn to discuss the pressure of playing in the Main Event as the defending champion.
Cynn didn’t play a hand on Day 1A. He said he hadn’t yet decided if he will enter Day 1B on Thursday or Day 1C on Friday.
Another Exciting Start for the 2019 Main Event
Day 1A of the Main Event is always the smallest session. Most of the big name pros don’t register for the first day. But there were some stars in the field such as Chris Moneymaker, Erik Seidel, and Alex Foxen.
Moneymaker, the man partially responsible for poker being so popular today, had a roller coaster day. If you follow him on social media, you probably caught his early frustrations with being card dead. He had quickly gone from his 60,000-chip starting stack to under 20,000 at one point. But he played like a true champ and grinded his way to over 90,000 by the end of the day.
Liv Boeree, however, didn’t bag chips thanks to her boyfriend Igor Kurganov who busted the PokerStars pro just a few hours into the session. Kurganov may have slept on the couch last night but we can’t confirm.
noone’s busting on anyone tonight that’s for damn sure#WSOPME pic.twitter.com/C2ez3xgeyO
— Liv Boeree (@Liv_Boeree) July 4, 2019
Bryan Campanello bagged the biggest stack on Day 1A with 417,500. While it probably feels great to get off to a hot start, he still needs to secure about 450 million more chips to win the Main Event. But, hey, it sure beats already getting felted or leaving starting Day Two with a tiny stack.
Day 1B begins at noon PT on the 4th of July. We’ll tell you all about the fireworks that ensued inside the Rio tomorrow.
