For the first time, organizers plan to broadcast 10 final table showdowns among the earlier events on the Internet. Organizers are producing the segments with a 60-minute delay, complete with hole-card cameras, outside the realm of a broadcasting deal with ESPN, which will continue to televise the tournament's top events, commissioner Jeffrey Pollack said.

"We've dialed it up a notch in terms of all of our broadcasting and media initiatives," he said. "This year, the World Series of Poker is being carried around the world and across every medium that matters with the same level of cutting-edge thought that drives NASCAR and the NBA."

The Internet broadcasts, to be shown on an upgraded Web site, will charge a pay-per-view subscription fee, he said. Players in those finals will be sequestered and prevented from gaining information on their opponents' cards in previous hands.

This year's version of the planet's richest poker game features 55 events, up from 46 last year, and runs from tomorrow likely until the wee morning hours of July 18. The no-limit Texas Hold 'em main event starts July 6, and the final table will be seated July 17 at noon.

Organizers have planned to seat 10,000 players for the $10,000 buy-in main event, up from the 8,773 who tried their luck last year. Three opening days, each with seating for 3,000 or more players, are needed to winnow the field for the poker marathon.

Phil Hellmuth Jr., Doyle Brunson and Johnny Chan will be vying for a record 11th bracelet for winning a world series event.

Recently, relative unknowns have seized poker's greatest prize since Chris Moneymaker, an accountant from Georgia, emerged from an online qualifying tournament to win the $2.5 million first-place purse in 2003.

Last year's champion, former Hollywood talent agent Jamie Gold, won $12 million after beating a record field. After a lawsuit, Gold settled for an undisclosed amount with a Los Angeles-based TV producer over an agreement to divvy up the winnings.