Hello, next Big Idea podcast listeners.

It's the tournament on every poker player's calendar.

Where amateurs and pros compete side by side.

For jury, you can't buy in a store. The 2017 World Series of Poker

main of it, day 1A is right now. It's July 8th 2017 and more than a thousand people are packed

into the Amazon ballroom in the Rio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. Forget

Games Bond and is t-Cux at Monte Carlo.

The people here wear t-shirts and sweatshirts and baseball caps, and nearly all of them are men.

The players crowd around more than 180 green oval tables.

At each one a dealer in a white shirt and black vest handles the cards.

The ballroom is quiet, save for a droning announcer and the soft clink of plastic chips.

You can feel the nervous energy in the air.

When the 10-day tournament is over, the winner will take home more than $8 million.

Poker is a big money sport, but it's hardly exclusive. Anyone can enter the main event as long as they've got

$10,000 to spare. This year more than 7,000 players come, some of them season

professionals, most of them hopeful amateurs.

Upstairs in her hotel room, a 33 year old woman named Maria Konecova

wonders where she fits in.

A year ago Koneakova knew nothing about poker. She'd never really given it a thought.

But for the last several months, she's been training hard

with one of the world's best players,

and now she's ready to try her luck. But lately

...