This Friday, over 7,000 men and women from all walks of life will sit down at THE Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas and bet $10,000 that they can bluff with the best poker players in the World.

Last year's World Series of Poker shattered all participation and prize money records for a live poker tournament. The 45 events generated 32,341 player entries and more than $106 million in gross prize money. Joseph Hachem of Australia won the World Series of Poker Championship and an unprecedented $7.5 million.

These players will beg, borrow and steal to get their entry fee and along the way unknowns will emerge and become household names across America. The events surrounding the tournament have become a huge part of this extravaganza and it now has the feel of a Super Bowl week in Vegas.

A trade show featuring exhibitors from around the globe, the World Series of Poker Lifestyle Show will showcase a broad array of new poker products, websites, books and clothing. Last year more than 50,000 people, including celebrities and athletes, visited the show.

ESPN is also offering pay-per-view telecasts of the final table on August 10th and it will be interesting to see what kind of numbers this exploding event can garner. Betting action is available on your favorite character and there's certainly no shortage of colorful nicknames.

Howard (The Professor Lederer), Chris (Jesus) Ferguson, Dave (Devilfish) Ulliott, John (World) Hennigan, Men (The Master) Nguyen, Ram (Crazy Horse) Vaswani and Gary (The Choirboy) Jones are just a few of the players who stand a reasonable chance of ending up at the final table on the 10th of August.

It will be a wild and wacky week in Vegas and www.sportsbook.com has all kinds of wagering opportunities available now!

Bob Acton

Online Sports Betting