Event #43: $10,000 Short Deck Championship is On Deck
Outside of the Main Event title, there's no bracelet more coveted than one that comes in a $10k Championship event. Today's Event #43: $10,000 Short Deck Championship marks the first chance to score a Championship bracelet from the GGPoker World Series of Poker (WSOP) Online series.
Short Deck is a new variant of no limit hold'em that reduces the size of the deck by removing all cards from deuce to five. That leaves just 36 cards to play with, and changes the odds and hands substantially. For example, the "wheel straight" in Short Deck is 
, and because it's easier to hit a full house than five suited cards, your boat won't float against the villain's flush.
Last year during the live event in Las Vegas, the $10,000 Short Deck Championship drew 114 entries, and built a prize pool of over $1 million. It came down to a heads up match between two Americans, where Oakland, CA's Alex Epstein took down Thai Ha from Factoryville, PA for the bracelet. Epstein bagged nearly $300k for the win, while Ha won $183,081 for second.
With just under three hours to go till cards are in the air, there are 11 players currently registered for the event, and it's no surprise the field of full of familiar names including Pete Chen, Danny Tang, Martin "FuTimReilly" Zamani, and Boon Heng "CowBaby" Siong. They'll all start the game with 300,000 in chips, and play 30 minute levels. Once play reaches the final table, they'll stop the timer, and play 60 hands per level until a champion is decided.
Action gets underway at 6 p.m. GMT today, 2 p.m. Eastern, and PokerNews will be there to bring you the details throughout the day's action. Even with fewer cards in the deck, there will still be plenty of action as they compete for the first Championship bracelet to be awarded in the GGPoker WSOP Online series.