Updated on 22 Feb 26 by

Ivey crushes on a record breaking day in the WSOP Main Event

In today's Daily Rewind we recap the latest action from a record breaking Main Event and give to charity with a new poker group.

Main Event breaks a record

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A big day at the WSOP

Early predictions that Day 1C of this year's Main Event would be big came to fruition late last night as 3,768 players sat down for their shot at the World Championship.

Not only did that total make Day 1C the largest single flight in WSOP history, but it pushed the total number of players in the 2014 Main Event to 6,683 which is the biggest total since 2011.

On top of these records, this year's Big Dance became the fifth largest of all-time behind a string of events that took place in the pre-UIGEA days.

Of the players who made it through Day 1C, Phil Ivey was the most noteworthy. Pulling along the likes of Daniel Negreanu and Jake Cody, Ivey managed to finish the session second in chips (187,025) behind the overall leader, Eric Tracey (206,175).

Dwan's touching moment

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Dwan's normal face

According to a tournament update from Pokernews, Tom 'durrrr' Dwan showed his softer side earlier today after a super fan asked him for a hug.

Although generally known for his unwillingness to talk to fans or reporters, Dwan seemed to be in a more jovial mood on Day 1C of the Main Event.

Indeed, after the fan asked if she could "hug him", the high stakes pro decided to oblige and even managed to smile as the fan's boyfriend took a picture.

The rarity of the situation certainly wasn't lost on Jonathan Aguiar who burst into a fit of laughter and explained that aside from Dwan rarely smiling for pictures, he usually takes them for the American and charges $20 for the privilege.

Poker with a conscience

Poker and charity have gone hand-in-hand for a number of years, but thanks to group of high profile pros the process of giving money to a good cause just got a little bit better.

Raising for Effective Giving (REG) was recently set up by a small team of poker players with the aim of thinking "rationally" about which charities are most in need of support.

Moreover, the group aims to provide "effective giving" by maximising the expected value of each donation through research, analysis and discussions.

Fronted by the likes of Igor 'lechuckpoker' Kurganov, Philipp 'philgruissem' Gruissem and Liv Boeree, the group is currently looking for members to donate 2% of their gross quarterly poker winnings to the project.

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Three founders of REG

Question of the Day

"Is the strength of this year's WSOP Main Event another sign that the poker industry is getting stronger?"
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To complete our round-up of pre-Main Event tournaments at this year's WSOP, we need to recap Events #63 and #64.

Offering players two final chances for success before the Main Event, these two MTTs saw Bryn Kenney and Pat Walsh take home bracelets.

First to sample success was Kenney in Event #63, the $1,500 10-Game Mix Six-Max. After weaving his way past 444 dexterous poker players, Kenney was able to clinch the title and $153,220 after beating Australia's Jan Suchanek heads-up.

In Event #64, Walsh was able to survive a stellar $10,000 PLO final table that included Matt Marafioti, Marko infinity1000' Neumann and Isaac Baron to eventually best the UK's Javed Abrahams heads-up and claim $923,379.

World Series of Poker 2014

Daily Signoff

For today's Daily Signoff we bring you the first in a series of Top 5 rundowns from PokerStars. For today's video we look at Dani Stern vs. Phil Hellmuth.

Yesterday's Daily Rewind: MicroMillions to giveaway more than $5 million

Daniel SmythDaniel Smyth has been working in the poker industry for six years as both a player and writer. He currently has a costly penchant for PLO and provides daily content for PokerStrategy.com. You can learn more about Daniel by clicking here.

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