Poker:WSOP Entrants start with More chips

The main event of the World Series of poker in Las Vegas will likely last a few hours longer this year as players start the tournament with more chips.

Tournament director Jack Effel said Saturday the series added chips to players' starting stacks this year to give them more time to size up the tables and maneuver during the tournament.

"It also gives the players a little more play time in the beginning — where a lot of the average players were feeling left out, like they didn't get their money's worth," Effel said. "These first few days of the main event, it's all about survival — these guys just want to make it through the first day."

Players began this year's $10,000 buy-in, no-limit Texas Hold'em main event with 30,000 chips, compared with 20,000 last year.

Effel said on the tournament first day on Friday, about 300 players were eliminated from the field of 1,116, about 27 percent of the field. Half the players were eliminated the day they started play last year, he said.

More than 850 players entered the main event Saturday, when tournament officials expected the least number of players because of the Independence Day holiday.

The tournament was not on pace to match last year's numbers, when 6,844 players entered and generated a $9.15 million prize for winner Peter Eastgate.

At one point Friday, actor Jason Alexander — who played George Costanza on "Seinfeld" — was seventh in chip count.