WSOP weekend - Records fall, first bracelets awarded

Player numbers up

So much for the expected decline in player participation.

Event #3, the first $1,500 No Limit Hold'em affair, drew 2,998 players, making it the third largest live-poker tournament of all time. The previous record of 2,891 players was set at the 2006 WSOP in the $1,000 buy-in Event #17 won by Jon Friedberg.

The first No Limit Hold'em event usually draws a large crowd. Last year, 2,776 players participated in the same $1,500 event.

The only two live tournaments with larger fields were the 2005 and 2006 WSOP Main Events, with 5,619 and 8,773 players respectively.

Alex Jacob, with 3.1 million chips, is the runaway leader in the tournament as it heads to the final table. Paul Evans trails the 2006 U.S. poker champ with 1,690,000 chips. Everyone else at the final table is under $1 million.

It's good to be young

The youngest-player-to-ever-win-a-bracelet record fell for the third time in three years after Chicago's Steve Billirakis won 2007's first bracelet at the tender age of 21 years and 11 days.

The previous record holder was Jeff Madsen at 21 years, one month and nine days. Madsen became the youngest to win two bracelets later in the tournament series.

Billirakis, barely able to legally play at the Rio, says he intends to play more events at the series, giving him a chance to surpass Madsen's youngest-to-win-two-bracelets mark if he wins another tournament before the 2007 Main Event.

The young champion is the first to win one of the showcased World Championship tournaments, capturing his first bracelet in a $5,000 Mixed Hold'em World Championship event. He earned $536,287 and is currently first Casino City's WSOP Player of the Year rankings.

One for the dealers

Frederick Narciso, 24, of Las Vegas, won the $500 employees-only event, earning $104,701. Narciso deals at the Harrah's-owned Orleans Casino in Las Vegas. He won a $90 satellite to play in the tournament.

Narciso finished 27th in the same event last year.