Paul Pierce has become a regular at the World Series of Poker events held in Las Vegas every year. Yesterday, he played in Day 1 of the main event and held his own.
Pierce has participated in the event in recent years and is an avid poker player. Last year, he blessed us with this classic photo. Cue the “Pierce should hire a masseuse on the bench to keep him from aging” jokes:
And @paulpierce34 wins another pot in the $10K PLO event at the @wsop (cc: @espn @SportsCenter) pic.twitter.com/jKh3sdrDeb
— Andrew Feldman (@AFeldmanESPN) July 6, 2013
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There are 6,683 participants in the main event this year. Pierce was downright giddy to get started:
Playin in WSOP today wish me luck pic.twitter.com/R08LsUgfhG
— Paul Pierce (@paulpierce34) July 7, 2014
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After yesterday, the chip leader has 206,175 in chips. Pierce is well behind that count, but he’s still alive and has a chip stack of 60,400. Former Knick 7-footer Earl Barron is also playing at the event, and finished the day with 59,000 in chips.
Pierce is a free agent and drawn interest from the Los Angeles Clippers. It’s unclear how much he’ll receive on the open market as he’ll be turning 37 when next season starts.
It’s important to keep that in mind as Pierce progresses through the event. First place will pay $10 million in prize money, and if Pierce somehow wins it all, he’ll make more from this tournament than he probably will playing in the NBA this season.
Now that’s high stakes.
What do you think?
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