The 2015 World Series of Poker is set to kick off its first day of festivities at Noon Pacific Time on Wednesday. Over the span of the next seven weeks and 68 events, dreams will be realized, bankrolls will be crushed, and history will be made.

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Of course, the traditional first event for the WSOP is the $500 Casino Employees Event. As its name suggests, the tournament draws casino employees from around the world to take part in what is considered a “thank you” for all the hard work that is about to be done around the Rio.

In recent years, it has also encompassed much of the poker media and the occasional professional who, because of their connections with land-based casinos throughout the world, is eligible to play in the tournament. 876 players turned up for this event last year and Roland Reparejo is expected to be back to defend his title.

The professionals in the field – and those with some deeper pockets than most – will be waiting for later on Wednesday afternoon. At 4:00pm, a $5,000 No Limit Hold’em tournament, Event #2 on the schedule, will take to the felt. It will be the largest tournament in terms of buy-in until Sunday’s $10,000 Limit Deuce to Seven Triple Draw Lowball World Championship.

As such, there will a throng of top pros in the mix vying for this crown, which was won last year by David Miscikowski over a final table that gathered Blake Bohn, John Dolan, Jean “Prince” Gaspard, Kevin MacPhee, Manig Loeser and eventual runner-up Norbert Szecsi.

This weekend, the Colossus, a $565 tournament with a guaranteed prize pool of $5 million, will take to the floor of the Rio with a field that could conceivably crack the 20,000-entry mark. Using four different start times (two on Friday and two on Saturday), players will take their shot at earning a WSOP bracelet for a miniscule price.

Players can play every flight if they choose, but they can only advance one stack. If they play Friday and want to play Saturday, they must sacrifice their stacks and take their chances with their Saturday performance. As such, it will take a great deal of skill to navigate this field.

The hashtag #WSOP2015 was one of the top trending topics on Wednesday morning. Defending World Poker Tour World Champion Asher Conniff Tweeted, “Couldn’t be more excited,” to be heading out to Sin City, indicating he was ready to “have some fun.”

Vanessa Rousso indicated to her followers that she’ll be taking part in the $5,000 tournament on Wednesday, while four-time WSOP bracelet holder Tom Schneider told Brian Hastings that the reason he only went for $5 in Hastings’ fantasy poker draft was that he “didn’t say words like ‘donkament’ or ‘3-bet’ enough.”

In a particularly funny post on Facebook, three-time WSOP bracelet winner Dutch Boyd also was discussing the $25,000 WSOP Fantasy Draft. Lamenting that no one selected him in the 88-player draft, Boyd’s significant other Michele kept Boyd’s ego in check by saying, “You’re top 300… You’re not top 88.”

Drama and comedy, riches and disaster, anger and elation, the World Series of Poker can bring it all. For the next seven weeks, the poker world enters its greatest thrill ride. Whether competing in the greatest spectacle in poker or witnessing it from the rail, it is the time that all poker aficionados wait for each year. Check out all of PocketFives’ WSOP coverage, brought to you by Tournament Poker Edge.

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