Whats instore at the World Series of Poker
This year's World Series
Find out what is instore at this year's World Series of Poker, special tournaments, delayed finals and huge amounts of prize money to be won.
This July sees the start of the World Series of Poker no-limit Texas Hold’em main event, organisers are adding a specially $40,000 buy-in tournament at the beginning of the series to mark its 40th anniversary.
As with last year’s competition, they have decided to have a four month break before the final table. This allows ESPN television to broadcast the game without viewers knowing who the winner is. Last year, the tournament reduced 6.844 players down to 9 during july and then the final table took place in November (last year’s was won by Peter Eastgate who took home $9.15 million and is the youngest ever winner).
As a result of last year’s break, according to tournament and cable network officials, viewing ratings went up by 50% for last year’s final which was shown the same day as play finished. The break was met with mixed reaction; it is generally considered a good thing but also thought that the 117 day break last year was too long. According to Dennis Phillips who finished third last year (and took home $4.5 million as a result) the break needs to be cut down, “it just seemed like it went on forever. I was ready for the final table probably 60 days after the break”.
The break is approved of by Phil Hellmuth, who has won a gold bracelet at the series no less than eleven times. He thinks that the break is good for the game as it creates a feeling of suspense and build-up to the winner and results in the final game being a bigger event than it otherwise would have been.
This year’s World Series of Poker starts on May 27th at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, it will two more gold bracelet events than last year, bringing the total to fifty-seven. The main event starts on July 3rd and the final, after the break, will take place on November 10th. This year begins with a special $500 tournament for casino employees only and is followed by the special $40,000 no-limit Hold’em tournament. According to Phil Hellmuth, the high buy-in, matched only by a $50,000 rotating-game H.O.R.S.E tournament, will make player’s feel like it carries as much prestige as the main event. He says he would “like to see that be a $25,000 buy-in, but for the 40th anniversary, $40,000 seems OK”.
In general, a higher buy-in price means that fewer players can afford to enter. This results in better known professionals such as Hellmuth being at the final table. Last year the main event and H.O.R.S.E events were the most competitive, the H.O.R.S.E tournament was won by professional player Scotty Nguyen with prize money of close to $2 million.
One other specially event offered by the series is the “stimulus special”, this is a $1,000 buy-in event being run on the first weekend that should attract large crowds for a non-main event. To the dismay of Hellmuth, the series has removed the five re-buy events which allowed players to buy themselves back into a tournament after being knocked out. Hellmuth thinks that in re-buy tournaments opponents assume that they will have to spend lots of money to stay in and as a result do not play at their normal standard. According to Hellmuth, the top professionals, like himself and Johnny Chan do not need to re-buy to do well in re-buy tournaments.
