WSOP Main Event Chip Scandal?

Filed in archive Tournament News on August 12, 2006

With 8773 paid entrants, this years WSOP Main Event was bigger than ever. If each entrant started with $10,000 in tournament chips, then there should have been 87,730,000 chips in play. However, at the beginning of the final table the total chips in play is listed at 90,140,000, per both pokerwire and cardplayer web sites. Where did these extra chips come from? According to Richard Brodie, chip racing at the end of each level would not account for such a large disparity in chip count. Were these chips "smuggled" in to the WSOP Main Event from other WSOP tournaments or super-satellites? Were there additional entrants whose tournament buy-ins were not added to the prize pool but instead pocketed by Harrah's? Nobody knows for sure. I feel that this issue needs to be addressed and I agree with Richard in that the Gaming Control Board needs to be made aware of the situation.