Although this year’s festivities at the Rio in Las Vegas haven’t begun as of yet (we are less than three weeks away, however), Caesars Entertainment and WSOP officials have announced a big change for the running of the 2015 World Series of Poker Europe.
It was announced on Friday that this year’s event will be held in Berlin, Germany, at the Spielbank Berlin Casino from October 8-24. The tournament schedule consists of 10 bracelet events over that 17-day period and will be capped off by its prestigious €10,000 Championship Event (beginning on October 18) and a €25,000 High Roller event (beginning October 21). The new venue seems to have brought excitement in the WSOP offices as well as its German partners.
“Germany is truly a hotbed for poker talent,” said WSOP Executive Director Ty Stewart during the announcement of this year’s tournament schedule. “As home country to our reigning Player of the Year (George Danzer) and 2011 World Champion (Pius Heinz), we look forward to discovering new names ready to perform on poker’s biggest stage. Berlin became a logical choice city for WSOP Europe given its proximity to all of Europe, the experienced management team at Spielbank, and the gap of time since a major poker tournament has come to the city. We believe this truly will be the best organized and contested WSOP Europe ever.”
As Stewart noted, Germany seems to be ready to return to the international poker stage with a big event. “It`s a great honor to host this event,” Spielbank Berlin Casino Director of Operations Marcel Langner noted. “We are sure all visitors will have a great time in Berlin. We will offer cash game and tournament play, as well as the Oktoberfest special to welcome our guests from all over the world. Welcome to Spielbank Berlin. We look forward to this new edition of the WSOP Europe for the first time in Germany and specifically our property in central Berlin at the Spielbank.”
The first day of the WSOP Europe will feature a €2000 Six-Handed No Limit Hold’em event, but it is Event #2 on the schedule that should draw the largest crowd of the festival. “The Oktoberfest,” a €500 event that begins the day after the doors open in Berlin (October 9), will have four different flights over two days that should put together a field in the thousands. It is somewhat along the lines of “The Colossus” which will debut at the 2015 WSOP in Las Vegas this summer.
There are two Pot Limit Omaha events, a €3000 Eight-Handed tournament on October 11 and a €500 event on October 15, which should get the best in Europe to come out of the woodwork for some action. A €2000 Mixed Event is always good for testing the best poker players in the world, but the Championship Event and the High Roller will be what the poker community will really train their eyes on.
Germany used to be a hotbed of live poker opportunity, hosting several events on the European Poker Tour during the history of that organization. It has also given some of the stranger turns in poker, including the 2010 attempted robbery of the EPT Main Event. Following the drive by the German government to nationalize their online gaming industry, however, the nation fell off the live tournament poker radar; the EPT last went to Berlin in 2013 (Season Nine) and the WSOP Europe marks the triumphant return of a major poker circuit to Berlin.
The WSOP Europe has also had a bit of a vagabond past, perhaps intentional on the part of Caesars and WSOP officials. For the first four years of its existence, the WSOP Europe was contested in London. In 2011, however, the WSOP Europe moved to the swank arena of Cannes for a two year stay on the coast of the Mediterranean. The last time the WSOP Europe was contested was 2013 (a decision by the WSOP to alternate the WSOP Europe and the WSOP Asia/Pacific saw the WSOP Europe not contested in 2014), when it settled into Enghien-les-Bains, France, for its eight-bracelet schedule (the defending WSOP Europe champion, Adrian Mateos, solidified his position in the poker world by winning the EPT Grand Final a few days ago).
The central location of Germany should draw a huge throng of players from European continent to battle it out for one of the 10 bracelets available. With its October start, it will also be the last chance that players from around the world will have a chance to pick up a WSOP bracelet for 2015. Although players have yet to lift a card or a chip in WSOP competition for 2015, they are already marking their calendars for Berlin this fall.
