Players in all 57 events at this year's World Series of Poker will start out with significantly larger stacks of chips. Whether they have any left at the finish is up to their skills and luck.
Event No. 2 set for Thursday through Sunday at the Rio hotel and casino in Las Vegas is a new Texas Hold 'em tournament with a buy-in price of $40,000 to commemorate the 40th annual World Series. For the $40,000, each player will get 120,000 chips.

That 3-1 ratio of chips to buy-in price will apply in every event. The ratio had been 2-1 since 2007. Before that it was 1-1.

"We did triple the starting chips this year, allowing players more opportunities to have their strategies, learn their players at the table, last longer in the tournament and really give them an opportunity to play," says tournament director Jack Effel.

Jeffrey Pollack, president and commissioner of the World Series, says the intention is to "create more play and more value for everyone. … You have a bigger gas tank, if you will."

Was the tough economy a factor in giving players more chips for their bucks?

"We would have done it anyhow. … It's about giving customers more value, and that's a smart thing to do no matter what the state of the economy," says Pollack

This weekend's $40,000 buy-in is the second largest of the tournament, surpassed only by the $50,000 buy-in for the H.O.R.S.E event set to begin June 14.

The $40,000 price means this tournament will attract the top pros, the kind of players who can afford it and are willing to risk it.

"It should produce one of the best fields ever at the World Series of Poker, and it should result in a final table for the ages. We expect every top poker player to come out for this event," says Pollack.

The idea for the event came out of a dinner conversation between Effel and his wife, Elisha.

"I was really trying to search for something we could do for the 40th annual WSOP," says Effel. "My wife said, 'Why don't you just run a $40,000 no-limit event?'And it just clicked."

Also in keeping with its 40th anniversary, the World Series will put on a Hold 'em tournament Sunday open exclusively to past winners of its main event, the biggest and richest game in the series.

A total of 34 players have won the past 39 titles. The 27 living title winners are eligible to compete. The winner will get a vintage 1970 Corvette (the first World Series was in 1970) and receive the Binion Cup, dedicated to the Las Vegas family that pioneered the World Series. No prize money, but plenty of bragging rights.

"Whoever wins this event will be able to say they are the champion of champions," says Pollack.

This year's main event begins July 3 with a $10,000 buy-in (30,000 chips).

The final table (nine players) will be set July 14. Then, as the World Series did last year, the players will adjourn until Nov. 7-10 to play out the final table.

Last year's main event drew 6,844 participants. Peter Eastgate of Denmark, the youngest winner ever at 22, earned $9.15 million.

ESPN's TV coverage of the World Series will air every Tuesday from July 28 through Nov. 10. The first event aired will be this weekend's $40,000 tournament.

The 201 entrants in the $40,000 buy-in event include such prominent players as Doyle Brunson, Phil Hellmuth, Scotty Nguyen, Phil Ivey, Barry Greenstein, Daniel Negreanu and Celebrity Apprentice runner-up Annie Duke.

First place will pay $1.89 million with a total prize pool of $7.7 million for the top 27 finishers.

A 37-year-old Russian poker professional turned a $40,000 buy-in into $1.89 million at the World Series of Poker on Monday, earning his second gold bracelet after topping a field of 201 of the world's toughest players over four days.

Vitaly Lunkin of Moscow bested 23-year-old Las Vegas poker professional Isaac Haxton after more than three hours of heads-up no-limit Texas Hold 'em, winning the final hand with pocket aces _ the game's best starting hand.

"It was the most difficult tournament of my life," Lunkin said through an interpreter. "Every player at the table was a star."

Lunkin avoided a flush by Haxton on the final hand to take the last of his chips and end the tournament.

The players wagered all their chips after Haxton hit a pair of eights and a diamond flush draw on the flop, but black cards on the turn and river gave Lunkin the title.

"It was a game, but at the same time it was just a very hard job," Lunkin said.

Haxton won $1.17 million for second place.

Haxton started heads-up play with a nearly 2-1 chip lead on Lunkin, but the players traded chips over a slow grind for much of the next two hours.

Lunkin took a roughly 2-1 chip lead over Haxton after calling Haxton's all-in bet with a pair of 10s, catching a third on the flop for a set to beat Haxton's king high.

Lunkin nearly eliminated Haxton with pocket aces a few hands later, but a river 10 gave Haxton two pair and the chip lead.

"Right after that 10 peeled off, I was pretty sure I was going to win the tournament," Haxton said. "This was an exceptionally tough field."

Haxton had Lunkin all but beat two hands later with a pair of eights, but Lunkin made a queen-high flush with the last community card to take a dominating chip lead.

The field of 201 players in the series' first open tournament of the year attracted many of poker's biggest names and others who regularly play in the highest stakes cash games. In all, 27 players won at least $71,858 from the prize pool of $7.72 million.

The $40,000 tournament, specially priced for the series' 40th anniversary this year, is one of 57 bracelet events in several poker games culminating in the main event, poker's richest tournament.

Series officials had hoped a buy-in four times the price of admission to its main event would attract only the game's top players and result in a high-powered final table.

Greg "Fossilman" Raymer _ who won $5 million for taking the main event title in 2004 _ was eliminated in third place about nine hours after the final nine players began play Sunday afternoon. Raymer lost after finding his pair of fives against Haxton's nines with all the money in the middle.

"I kind of wish I had two big cards right now," the 2004 main event champion said after two face cards and a ten hit on the flop. Two red threes later, Raymer was out.

Raymer won $744,927 for third, then walked around a grandstand to another tournament table where an invitational event for past main event champions was under way.

"It was a lot of good luck and hopefully some good decisions," Raymer said.