According to Dan at pokerpages.com, the WSOP final has been capped at 2400 entries plus 200 alternates, and they had 50 of the alternate seats filled last night. Wow. It seems like the 2600 will happen easily.
So, if you followed my advice and got that field bet at BoDog when it was still at 1:1, here's how that breaks down:
2550 players versus the 50 on BoDog's list works out to odds of 51:1, and for that you're getting a 1:1 payoff. Nothing's a sure thing, of course, but those are pretty damn good odds. About 98% of the players are in the field. I'm feeling pretty good about picking up that $50 :)
I'm worried that a couple of my head-to-head bets may be voided, though. I have yet to see Sam Farha's name on any of the events leading up to the final, it sounds like he is not around. If he doesn't play then the bets I made that Moneymaker and Vahedi will last longer than him will be tossed.
Some notable winners in the events before the final include Ted Forrest with 2 bracelets, Annie Duke, Kathy Liebert, and Barry Greenstein (all winning their first bracelets), Daniel Negreanu and TJ Cloutier.
I'm especially happy to see Greenstein pick up another $300k for his charities in the deuce to seven lowball event. It seems it would be pretty easy to give away all your tournament winnings if you had the kind of money he does, but you don't see anyone else doing it. The man is also on a roll - if I had to pick a single player to be my favorite in the final, it would be him.
Ted