On July 8th, just before the 2015 WSOP, 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 2015 WSOP  premier event, but on Tuesday last years winner was knocked out. An entry into this event costs the player $10,000. This years tournament also has fewer entries than last year. Phil Hellmuth, Phil Ivey and Daniel Negreanu who are all poker pros still fighting for the 2015 WSOP title, as are celebrities Ray Romano, Brad Garret, Jennifer Tilly and James Wood.

Texas hold ’em, also known as Texas holdem or just hold ’em, is one of the most popular variants of poker. Its popularity surged in the 2000s due to television exposure and the Internet. This story originally appeared on World Casino Directory.