WSOP Event #1: $500 Casino Employees Tournament

WSOP
Poker.org Staff
Posted on: September 22, 2021 06:28 PDT

Event #1 of the 2021 WSOP is the $500 Casino Employees tournament. This No-Limit Hold’em event started on Thursday, September 30, and was scheduled to run for two days. This tournament was not open to the public and was only open to casino employees, dealers, and invited members of the poker media.

The $500 Casino Employees No-Limit Hold’em tournament first appeared at the start of the 2009 World Series of Poker. It has featured as the kickoff event for the WSOP in every year since. This year, the WSOP opening carried a little extra weight after the coronavirus pandemic shut the series down in 2020. Plus, this is the last year the WSOP will be held at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino. Local poker dealer James “Jimmy” Barnett came away with the victory, taking home $39,013 and his first WSOP gold bracelet.

Jimmy Barnett's  Instagram page says he is a poker dealer and grinder who lives in Vegas. Prior to his victory on Friday night, he had only five WSOP cashes to his name. The largest was a 49th place finish in a 2019 WSOP $600 Deepstack for $7,315. That's the biggest cash of Barnett’s poker career, surpassing his previous best  of $26,515 for a fifth-place finish in a $250,000 guaranteed event at the Golden Nugget Hotel & Casino in 2018.

The Casino Employees event drew 686 runners in 2019 to generate a prize pool of $298,410. Nicholas Haynes, a dealer in the ARIA Resort & Casino poker room, won the event to earn his first WSOP gold bracelet and the tournament’s top cash prize of $62,345.

Read about the 2021 WSOP Event #1 winner here

Jesse Fullen Event 01 (Image: Haley Hintze)
Jesse Fullen
  • Event Info

    Game: No-Limit Hold'em
    Date: Thursday, Sept 30, 11 AM
    Buy-in: $500
    Starting Stack: 25,000
    Level Duration 40 Min
    2019 Reigning Champion Nicholas Haynes - $62,248
    2021 Total Entries: 420
    2021 Prize Pool: $176,400
    2021 Winner: James Barnett
    SWIPE FOR MORE

    Pay Outs

    Rank Player Nationality Prize
    1 James Barnett USA +39011
    2 Jack Behrens USA +24112
    3 Danny Chang USA +16540
    4 Leo Abbe USA +11387
    5 Bryan Garrett USA +8294
    6 Robert Schmidt USA +6069
    7 Christopher Minton USA +4542
    8 Rico Cuevas USA +3478
    9 Ronald Baltazar USA +2727
    10 Justin Steinman USA +2190
    SWIPE FOR MORE
    Watch
    WSOP Main Event 2024 FINAL TABLE - A Champion is Crowned [$10,000,000 FIRST PRIZE]
    Expand
    Move
    CloseClose
    arrow-right
    arrow-left
    Watch
    Tom Dwan's big pots : The Biggest Pot EVER Televised
    Expand
    Move
    CloseClose
    arrow-right
    arrow-left