Unusual sporting event has become instant classic

This year's event will set a record for players and prize money.

LAS VEGAS -- The World Series of Poker creates legends and changes lives, makes instant millionaires and megastars, pits world-class rounders against online amateurs, brings together Hollywood celebrities and red-eyed denizens of backroom games.

It's a sport without athletics, a marathon that doesn't move. It takes skill and luck, math and feel, and it's captured an audience of millions of players and TV viewers of all ages.

Once the province of a small cadre of pros, poker's most renowned affair has burgeoned into the world's richest spectacle -- some $100 million worth of games that go on for six weeks of day and night sessions.

The no-limit Texas Hold 'em main event starts today with a record number of players paying the $10,000 entry fee -- between 5,000 and 6,000 are expected -- and a record top prize that may approach $7.5 million for the winner of the final table that begins July 15.

Clacking chips and low chatter send a constant cicada-like hum through the 60,000 square foot convention center at Harrah's Rio, up to 200 oblong tables going at once, 10 players at each table, the stakes in terms of money and reputation almost unfathomable. There are 450 dealers, the best in the business recruited from around the country, working three shifts 'round the clock.

In Texas Hold 'em, each player is dealt two cards. Five cards are dealt on the table and whichever player can make the best hand from his two cards and the five on the table wins. No limit means precisely what it sounds like -- a player can risk all the money they have at any point in the game.

The aptly named Chris Moneymaker, a young accountant, emerged from anonymity and a $40 investment in a tournament on PokerStars.com two years ago to win $2.5 million against a field of 829 players.

Greg Raymer, a patent lawyer with a penchant for fossils and goofy holographic sunglasses, walked away with $5 million last year when 2,576 players entered the main event.

It's a good bet that similarly obscure players will sit at the final table this year and that one of them, rather than the many touring pros competing from around the world, will capture the largest prize in the game's history.

Phil Ivey may be the favorite -- sports books in Las Vegas list him at about 400-1 -- but there are too many players and there's too much luck involved over a relatively short span to pick anyone with much confidence.

"I could pick 20 players and, mathematically, it's much more likely than not that none of them are at the final table," Raymer said.

That would include Ivey, Phil Hellmuth, Howard Lederer and sister Annie Duke, Poker Hall of Famers Doyle Brunson and Johnny Chan and other top players such as 2000 champ Chris Ferguson.

Those who have won the coveted championship bracelet are lucky and good, and for some the World Series has forever altered their lives.

The same could happen to someone this year. Among those taking a stab is Bill Barnett, the 64-year-old mayor of Naples, Fla., who qualified on PokerStars.com.

"It's doubtful I'm going to make it through nine nights," he said. "It's just a thrill to be able to say, 'Hey, I was there and I got to play in it, and I earned my seat.' My kids and grandkids all think it's hysterical."