The poker world has reached the end of an era with the World Series of Poker (WSOP) concluding its final bracelet event at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino.
Next summer, the series will move down the road to the Las Vegas Strip, the first time the WSOP will take place anywhere but the Rio since 2004, when it was hosted at Binion's downtown.
On June 3, 2005, Anthony Nguyen shipped the $500 Casino Employees No-Limit Hold'em tournament, the first bracelet ever won at the Rio, owned at the time by Harrah's Entertainment, which later became Caesars Entertainment. Allen Cunningham was the first player to win an open bracelet event at the near-Strip property, having taken down a $1,500 NLH tournament two days after Nguyen's win.
The final bracelet won at the Rio, out of the 1,030 total awarded, occurred on Tuesday, with Boris Kolev winning Event #88: $5,000 8-Handed No-Limit Hold'em, exactly 6,019 days since the off-Strip casino first opened its doors to the World Series of Poker.
In between the first champion and the last winner there have been more memorable moments than we can count. But we did dig up some interesting stats on the WSOP during the Rio era, starting with the G.O.A.T. of the WSOP, Phil Hellmuth, who is unsurprisingly the only player to win more than five bracelets at the Caesars-owned resort.
Hellmuth, who won his 16th bracelet last month in Event #31: $1,500 No-Limit 2-7 Lowball Draw, collected six shiny gold bracelets at the Rio.
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