Travel Report: 2012-13 WSOP-C Harrah’s Resort Atlantic City, Main Event, Day 2

Was another super long one on Sunday as Day 2 of the WSOP Circuit Harrah’s Resort Atlantic City Main Event lasted from 12 noon all of the way to 2:30 a.m. And with another hour or so of post-game that meant bedtime didn’t come until about 4 o’clock.

It’ll be a long one again today for the final day of play, as we still have 26 players and will be playing down to a winner. In fact, we may well go up until just a few hours before I’ll be making my way back via train to Philadelphia and then eventually flying home.

That photo above is of one of several decorations here in the ballrooms on the third floor of the Harrah’s resort where the tourney is being played, a little display of a five-card poker hand. Notice anything weird about it?

You might have to look twice at it to notice, but there are two ’s in the hand. Just about all of the displays have this quirk in them, with duplicate cards (sometimes twice) among the five. Players have been puzzling over the signs repeatedly whenever they happen to look up to see the signs.

Speaking of noticing something being a little off, if you follow me on Twitter you might have seen me yesterday making some references to the prize pool here at the Main Event, responding a couple of times along the way to queries made by Allen Kessler (who is not here playing).

Kessler had noticed that the originally announced prize pool didn’t quite add up to the equivalent of $1,500 per entry (which has been the case at other WSOP-C Main Events), and was wondering why. As it happened, the ME structure sheet here had described the $1,675 buy-in as being “$1,565 prize pool + $110 entry fee,” with 5% of the prize pool reserved for the dealers.

That actually meant just $1,486.75 of every buy-in was going to the players, and once the discrepancy was noticed and the discussion began to filter around on Twitter and elsewhere, it got back to the folks here running the show and soon it was announced the prize pool would be amended to ensure there was $1,500 per entry going back to the players. (Additionally, the dealers are still getting the same 5% as before, too.)

To be honest, I’ve been too busy covering the event really to get involved in the details of this discussion. The players here didn’t seem too concerned when the announcement was made about the revised payouts, though I imagine all who are cashing will be glad to take home a little more for their efforts. And I’m glad as well that everything seemed to have turned out smoothly with regard to the issue.

Like I say, though, no time on my end to look into this much at all, as we’re about to kick things off once again. If you’re curious to follow along, click over to PokerNews’ live reporting page today. Also, check the @WSOP twitter feed for information about a live stream from tonight’s final table.