“@WSOP $1,500 Six-Max event gets 1,587 entries, up from 1,069 in 2013. Poker is dead, right?” That was a Tweet from ESPN’s Andrew Feldman lauding the growth in Event #11 of the 2014 World Series of Poker, which started on Monday and will crown a winner on Wednesday. Percentage-wise, attendance in the $1,500 Six-Max No Limit Hold’em tournament was up almost 50% year-over-year.

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As Feldman added on Twitter, “Seeing such a big spike at that price point is a great sign for the industry… As @wickedchops said last night, that field represented what we saw in 04/05/06. Amateurs taking a shot, which should make WSOP really happy.”

The tournament, according to a few players, was scheduled at a more optimal time this year and came on the heels of the Millionaire Maker, which began on Saturday and will hold its final table on Tuesday at the Rio in Las Vegas, the site of the WSOP for the last 10 years.

Greg gspot_17 Ostrander posted on Twitter when the $1,500 Six-Max event wrapped up on Monday, “Grinded my way thru… the 1500 6max. Short stacked most of the day. 1,600 players started, 131 left. In the money already!” Everyone remaining is guaranteed at least $2,600 and the top prize is $449,000. Here are the top 10 chip stacks with 151 players remaining:

1. Steven Hensley – 184,200
2. Nicholas Frenzuh Immekus – 159,900
3. Luis Camprlo – 145,000
4. Blake Whittington – 135,400
5. Chris MacNeil – 130,000
6. Jason jdpc27 Wheeler – 119,200
7. Abraham Korotki – 103,000
8. David Davidp18 Peters – 90,000
9. Erik Cajelais – 89,000
10. Eddy Sabat – 86,000

Also at the Rio, the final table of the WSOP Millionaire Maker is set. The winner will make $1.3 million and Stephen Graner has a stranglehold of epic proportions on the rest of the field. Graner has 12 million in chips, two-and-a-half times the size of the next closest player, James Duke. Graner has one-third of the chips in play and the blinds were at 30,000-60,000-10,000 when the action stopped on Monday:

1. Stephen Graner – 12,005,000
2. James Duke – 4,645,000
3. Andrew Teng – 4,375,000
4. Andrew Dick – 4,185,000
5. Bradley Anderson – 3,850,000
6. Jonathan Dimmig – 2,870,000
7. Maurice Hawkins – 1,960,000
8. Jeffrey Coburn – 1,660,000
9. Jason Johnson – 1,245,000

Although his name isn’t in his PocketFives profile, Jason Johnson is a crowd favorite headed into the final table. According to a thread in the Live Poker forum, Johnson is known as krushurdreams on our site and the original post read, “Fellow PocketFives member krushurdreams made the final table of the WSOP Millionaire Maker. He’s last in chips, but has done a great job of doubling up and staying in the game, so I know he can do a great job at the final table tomorrow.”

The final table of the Millionaire Maker starts at 1:00pm Pacific Time on Tuesday. Stay tuned to PocketFives for the latest WSOP news, sponsored by Real Gaming.

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