Painful First Hand as 2024 WSOP Main Event Begins

Wednesday, July 3rd, was the start of the World Series of Poker Main Event (Day 1a). The dream of playing in the prestigious event begins when the first hands are dealt. Some of the players will battle through the grueling 10-day schedule, making it to the money or busting somewhere before the bubble. One will be a winner.

But this year, one unlucky soul didn’t even make it past the first hand.

How to Bust on Hand #1 of the Main Event

As Jack Effel and last year’s champion, Daniel Weinman, gave speeches, players waited patiently. This is the greatest poker tournament in the world," Daniel said. "I see myself playing this tournament for the rest of my life. I'm just excited to see who gets their banner up on the wall next to me, if I don't do it again.”

Then, the 2024 WSOP Main Event was underway, but the poker gods began pulling the strings immediately.

Travis "TJ" Darroch and David Williamson faced off. Travis, a player who streams his partypoker and ACR sessions on Twitch, had in the cutoff. He opened and was called by the big blind and button.

On the flop , the big blind leads (much to Travis' delight). From the third-pot lead, he raised the big blind to about 3.5x and was almost snap called.

An comes on the turn, seeming to lock in Travis' win, since he now beats any flopped straights. When Williamson checks to him, Travis bets around pot, which is snap called again.

The comes on the river, which doesn’t concern Travis much. And, when Williamson leads for around 80% pot, Darroch still felt there were enough combos to get value from.

“I rip it in, he snap calls. He’s got pocket 8s. And, I put my my face in my hands for a few seconds, then walk back to my hotel room,”

While some tournaments allow rebuys, the WSOP Main Event is not one of them. Even he wanted to get back into the action for a cool $10,000, there’s no way. David Williams argued that it should be allowed after he busted a few years ago, saying that the prize pool would be massive and that re-entry is a part of tournament poker now. But in the 2024 Main Event, this concept hasn’t been introduced.

Players will always bust early at the World Series, every year. However, the deck felt especially cold on this one.

“I’ve been dreaming about this since I was 16,” Travis mentioned as we reached the Main Event. But luckily for him, at his age, there are plenty of future Main Events that he can enter. Also, it’s nearly guaranteed that he will have more success next year. Still, Travis did say that he’d be taking some time off after this.

For more World Series news, check our daily coverage and updated list of the 2024 WSOP winners.