In 2013, a field of 6,343 entrants turned out for the first ever World Series of Poker Millionaire Maker. The $1,500 buy-in tournament returned last year and was the second largest WSOP event at the time with 7,977 entries. On Saturday night, the attendance for the 2015 Millionaire Maker was announced at 7,275, meaning the field size dipped a modest 8% year over year. It remains 18% above the attendance in 2013.

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WSOP officials Tweeted, “Milly Maker is official:7,275 entries. $9,821,250 prize pool. 747 places paid. $1,277,193 to 1st. Top 9 make $100k+.” Flight A of the tournament attracted 3,348 entrants and Flight B had 3,927.

Day 1A of the Millionaire Maker took place on Friday and ended with Tomas Altamirano as the chip leader with 265,000. A total of 500 players survived the first flight and will return for Day 2 on Sunday at 11:00am PT.

Poker players were Tweeting in earnest about the Millionaire Maker, including Dan O’Brien, who joked, “After the 22k person #WSOP #Colossus field, this #MillionaireMaker seems strangely winnable.”

Then there was Jamie Gold (pictured) being Jamie Gold. Although WSOP rules have limited what players can say, Gold was a chatterbox on Saturday. Coverage on WSOP.com described, “One player calls in middle position and Jamie Gold raises to 3,500 on his direct left. The action folds back around to the caller, who bumps the action up to 16,000. Gold asks for a count on his entire stack before beginning his patented table talk.”

Gold ultimately folded and showed pocket kings. He was dead on his read too, as his opponent flashed aces. If you haven’t seen, Gold is working with a site called YouStake, which has a support threadin our Staking Marketplace.

Some in the poker community were expecting a train wreck of sorts for the Millionaire Maker after so much emphasis was put on last weekend’s Colossus, a $565 buy-in tournament that shattered the record for the largest live tournament ever held. However, the Millionaire Maker shined, posting a large gain over 2013’s numbers even though it was down from last year.

WSOP Vice President Ty Stewartsaid on Twitter that the Millionaire Maker attendance was “way up versus 2013 despite fact that Colossus moved into the ‘kickoff’ weekend spot. That’s an amazing turnout.”

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