Bracelets

I went to the Rio yesterday to say hi to some of my blogger friends who landed jobs reporting on the World Series of Poker for various news outlets, to look around the new facilities they're using this year, and to play a little poker.

The first new thing I saw, just outside the Pavilion Room, was a display of the history of the bracelets awarded for winning WSOP events. I took pictures, knowing that many of my readers might find it interesting but won't be able to get here to see it in person.

Unfortuately, the display is not very photo-friendly. The lighting is not bright enough to work well without a flash, but a flash from just a foot away, through glass, is a disaster. Lacking a tripod for slow exposures, I did the best I could, but there was no way to avoid ugly darkness. Still, you can see the items and read the accompanying cards. It's not pretty, but you can take a look anyway.

Here's this year's bracelet:






The next display case is supposed to contain three of Billy Baxter's bracelets, showing various styles of bracelets over the years. One of them was missing, for reasons that weren't explained.








The next case contains a bit of WSOP history that I don't think I had ever heard before: For one year they gave out platters instead of bracelets:






Here are Johnny Chan's back-to-back Main Event bracelets:






Finally, here are Doyle Brunson's latest two bracelets: