On July 8th 2015 it was reported in Las Vegas that last years main event World Series of Poker winner will not have the chance to defend his title this year, but there is no shortage of pro poker players and some celebrities that will be trying to win the $7.68 million top prize.

There were 4,371 card players in total that were still in the no limit Texas Hold’em tournament at the beginning of the second session on Wednesday. The tournament officials declared that the prize pool of $60.3 million would be split between the top 1000 finishers.

Martin Jacobsen, a Swedish poker player was among the 6420 entries into the series premier event, but on Tuesday last years winner was knocked out.

An entry to play costs the player $10,000. The tournament also has fewer entries than last year.

Phil Hellmuth, Phil Ivey and Daniel Negreanu who are all poker pros are still in and so are the celebrities Ray Romano, Brad Garret, Jennifer Tilly and James Wood.

Seth Palansky, a tournament spokesman said that the number of entries is still on par with entries over the past 10 years. He also said that foreign players might have been discouraged to enter due to the currency conversion rates and the strength of the dollar.

The final nine players will each be $1 million richer when they return in November to compete for the top prize of $7.68, which is less than the $10 million awarded last year due the to smaller field of entries overall.

Players told organizers that they would like more chances to make a profit, which sparked Caesars Interactive Entertainment to spread the wealth and the 1000 finishers will win at least $15 000.

The main event is the last event of the 68 events World Series of Poker.