LAS VEGAS — Watch out, online poker whizzes and leisure players with deep pockets. The pros are coming, and they want their top crown back.

The World Series of Poker was once a series for those who make a career out of card playing, but amateurs flooding the tables have made it tougher for professional rounders to come out on top — especially in the main event and other no-limit Texas Hold 'em tournaments.

But things now seem to be swinging the other way, with pros winning 38 of the first 53 world series events, more than seven of every 10.

"It's the year of the pro, and I just got a feeling. I just got a gut feeling," said three-time bracelet winner Mike "The Mouth" Matusow.

Matusow said he's been talking about the main event with his friends who also play for a living, and they feel like a slower tournament structure this year will reward better players, giving professionals more of a chance to shine and end up on top.

"Who knows, it could be nine stiffs at the (final) table, but I think you're going to see something different this year," he said.

Joe Hachem, the 2005 main event champion, said structure changes have helped and professional players have adapted better to the unpredictable play of amateurs.

"Pros have gotten used to playing with these guys who were kind of freaking them out at first because they weren't quite sure how to deal with them," Hachem said.

Tournament director Jack Effel said the structure changes in the tournament aren't tailor-made for professional players, but they are meant to reward the best play over time and temper the effects of bad luck.

"It's geared so that if a player plays correctly, and makes the right decisions at the right times and catches the right cards, well then obviously they can make it far in the tournament," Effel said. "Nobody wants a crap shoot."

Effel said the main event at the world series has always been structured very slowly, meaning players begin with large chip stacks relative to the minimum bets required to play.

At this year's main event, players start with 20,000 in chips, which have no monetary value but are used to indicate where players stand relative to their opponents. The blinds, or minimum bets used to start the action in each pot, are 50 and 100 chips at the first level of play, meaning players can spend 100 chips to see the flop if nobody raised.

In poker tournaments, when levels increase over time and minimum bets become bigger, the power of each stack shrinks because players are required to bet more in order to stay in hands.

"Every player that walks through the door and buys into the tournament has an opportunity to be the best — just the same, equal chance as everyone else," Effel said. "Should this really be who got lucky who won the main event? ... Even having a slow structure like the main event you're still going to have to get lucky to make it through 6,000 players."

Chris Moneymaker, the 2003 champion who many believe instilled a belief in dreamers everywhere that any John or Jane Doe could win the main event, said he still thought the odds were against recognizable professionals.

"The sheer numbers of it are going to be tough, but I plan to be there," Moneymaker said before heading back to the tables to play his second level.

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On the Net:

World Series of Poker: www.wsop.com