There are many premier sporting events out there. The NFL has the Super Bowl, horse racing has the Kentucky Derby and American auto racing has the Indy 500. Poker—which might or might not be a sport depending on your point of view—has its own event as well.

The 36th annual World Series of Poker is set to take place at the Rio All Suites Hotel and Casino starting July 28th and oddsmakers are already taking bets on who will win. It seems kind of ironic that people are betting on the people who will be, well, betting.

Last year Joseph Hachem took the title as well as $7.5 million in winnings. Sportsbooks aren’t that confident that Hachem will defend his crown. Currently, the 2005 champ is listed at +60,000 to be repeat champion.

If Hachem doesn’t repeat, the door is wide open for a number of other competitors. A number of interesting candidates could win in place of the 2005 champ.

The one that books have anointed as this year’s favorite is Phil Ivey. The books have the Full Tilt poster boy listed at +3,300.

Gus Hansen is favored next, listed at +5000 and “Kid Poker” Daniel Negreanu rounds out the top three favorites, listed at +8000.

The last two champions Greg “Fossilman” Raymer and Chris Moneymaker aren’t getting a lot of chalk and are listed at +50,000 and +150,000 respectively.

Phil Hellmuth Jr. will bring his antics to the World Series of Poker and will do so at +10,000.

Female entrants aren’t rare and a couple of notable ladies include Annie Duke and Cyndy Violette at +75,000, Jennifer Harman at +80,000, and Kathy Liebert at +120,000.

Although everyone is looking out for themselves, family does matter at the World Series of Poker. Todd Brunson is listed at +75,000 and father Doyle is listed at +80,000 while the Mizrachi brothers, Michael and Robert are listed at +100,000 and +150,000.

There are a number of celebrities playing at the World Series too. Marvel comics is well represented as Daredevil, Ben Affleck, and Spiderman, Tobey Maguire are both listed at +200,000.

You can also take a chance on professional athletes such as Yevgeny Kafelnikov and former NFL TE Shannon Sharpe, who are listed at +200,000 and +250,000.

There are also prop bets going for the more adventurous bettor.

The oddsmakers at Bodog.com are willing to bet that the winner of this year’s event will be between 36 and 40 years of age and are laying 3/2 odds that this will happen.

They also think that there is an 11/10 chance that the winning hand will be Three-of-a-kind, as opposed to the 200/1 odds for a Royal Flush.

Think that men are better than women, especially in poker? Lay down some units at -1,500 if you think that a male will win the event.

Poker has seen its profile grow a lot over the past few years and never is that more evident than the publicity surrounding the World Series of Poker. Many people have a chance at winning and various sportsbooks are offering different bets. You know you’ve arrived when you see a variety of bets being offered for your event.