On Dec. 23, 2014, the World Series of Poker announced the debut of The Colossus, an exciting new tournament with a $565 buy-in and a $5 million guaranteed prize pool. Immediately, casual players from around the globe circled May 29-30, 2015, on their calendars, seeing their shot at a life-changing seven-figure payday for the lowest buy-in amount for a WSOP open event in 35 years.
For the next five months, the hype continued to build and what was hoped and expected to be the largest live event in poker history turned out to be just that.