We are less than two months removed from the finale of the World Series of Poker (WSOP), so now seems like a rather odd time to start looking ahead to next year. But considering the entirety of the WSOP, including the gap before the final table, is five months, it may not be that odd that it is time to start talking about the next one. As such, the dates for the 2014 World Series of Poker have been released.
The 45th running of poker’s greatest festival will begin on Tuesday, May 27, 2014 at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. It is hard to believe, but it will be the tenth straight year that it will be held at the Rio after previously having been hosted by Binion’s Horseshoe downtown (the final two days of the 2005 Main Event were still played out at Binion’s).
The highlight of the 49-day odyssey is, of course, the $10,000 WSOP Main Event, which will span a week and a half, from July 5 through July 14. The first three days – Saturday through Monday – will be the Day 1 starting flights, just like they were this year. On July 14, the tournament will play down to its last nine players before pausing until the eleventh month of the year, at which point the “November Nine” will commence play to determine the new champion. At this point, the exact dates of the final table have not been announced, but expect it to be held across two days around the beginning of November.
The other tournament spectacular will be the Big One for ONE DROP, which returns for its second showing after a year hiatus. The $1,000,000 buy-in event was created in 2011 by Cirque du Soleil founder and avid poker player Guy Laliberté as a means to not only give ultra-high rollers a special tournament of their own, but more importantly to benefit the charitable organization ONE DROP, which aims to bring clean drinking water to impoverished regions around the globe. The WSOP does not take a rake from the event and $111,111 of every buy-in goes to the charity. In 2011, a total of 48 players put up the million bucks to play, creating a prize pool of $42,666,672 after the ONE DROP donations were taken out. Antonio Esfandiari won the event and $18,346,673, the largest prize in tournament poker history.
Also back is the Little One for ONE DROP, a similar event with a much smaller buy-in: $1,111. Players will be able to re-buy as many times as they would like through the first four levels.
“In our 45th year, and tenth at the Rio, we are hard at work to make the 2014 World Series of Poker the biggest and best yet,” said WSOP Executive Director Ty Stewart in a press release. “We will build it, we hope you will come.”
