Fancy a Flutter on the WSOP? Several bookmakers have opened books on the WSOP Main Event to coincide with the opening day of the greatest poker tournament series of the year. Although Day One of the Main Event does not kick off until July 7th, there are five weeks of preliminaries in which millions of dollars will be won and lost at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.

Many people are speculating that the consequences of Black Friday will affect the turn-out for the event, but organisers are still confident that last year´s record breaking attendance could be matched – if not broken – with a higher contingent of European, Asian and Australasian players filling the void left by players still unable to withdraw their bankrolls from Full Tilt Poker and the Cereus Network.

However, many of the “regulars” have confirmed their participation and you can now back them to achieve the ultimate glory – a victory in the WSOP Main Event.

WSOP Main Event 2011 Betting

Phil Ivey  60/1(very possibly not playing)

Daniel Negreanu  80/1

Gus Hansen 80/1

Patrik Antonious 100/1

Tom Dwan 125/1

Allen Cunningham  125/1

Daniel Alaei 125/1

Erik Seidel 125/1

Juha Helppi 125/1

Notable Others:

Dan Harrington 175/1

Greg Raymer 200/1

Doyle Brunson 200/1

JP Kelly 225/1

Neil Channing 250/1

Sam Tricket 250/1

Vicky Coren 300/1

Each Way betting is available through Bet365.com, who pay one eighth odds if your selected player reached the final table.

Our Big WSOP Winners

Eric Seidel to win the Main Event at 125/1 looks outstanding value. He is certainly in with an excellent chance based on his live tournament play so far this year (Final Table at PokerStars Caribbean Adventure and Aussie Millions, won the High Roller event in Australia, the L.A. Classic, the NBC Heads Up Championship and the Five Star Poker Classic) and a tenner on him could be well rewarded.

Despite not appearing in the outright betting, Liv Boeree and Annette Obrestad can both be backed at 11/1 to be the top woman. Our money though will be on Vanessa Selbst – who is a very generous 10/1 with Bet365

Jade Cody and Praz Bansi join JP Kelly and Sam Tricket at the top of the market for best GB and Ireland player (all at 12/1 with Sporting Bet), however we have a feeling that Ram Vaswani (25/1) could perform very well in Vegas this year, and our money is on him along with our best tip of Sam Trickett who has had an amazing run and is showing superb form as always.

On that note, please bear in mind when placing your bets that the final table is not played until November, so you may have to hold on to your betting slip for another six months before getting paid out!

Our Big WSOP Losers

Save your money if you fancy backing Howard Lederer or Chris Ferguson for any event. These two have been conspicuous by their silence since “Black Friday” and, with many ex-Full Tilt players still waiting to get their money back from the company, the word on the street is that they will not show up.

We were interested (but not tempted) to take some of the 500/1 (with 888.com) about either Boris Becker or Shane Warne reaching the final table, however  we wish anybody backing Phil Hellmuth at 125/1 to make the November Nine the very best of luck – it will make for fun betting viewing!

You can still join the above by winning your 2011 WSOP seat online at The World Series of Poker.

Who do you think will win this Years 2011 WSOP?