Today is the day. Opening day of the 46th Annual World Series of Poker (WSOP). Poker players, their families, friends, and poker fans are flocking to the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino just off the Las Vegas Strip for a month and a half of card playing madness. More than 60 bracelets will be awarded, with the festivities culminating, as always, with the $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em Main Event.
That Main Event will begin with the first of three starting flights on Sunday, July 5th. The survivors from Days 1A and 1B will compete in separate Days 2A and 2B on Wednesday, July 8th, while the survivors from Day 1C will return for Day 2C on Thursday, July 9th. All of those still with chips after the Day 2’s will finally combine in a single, unified field on Friday, July 10th, in Day 3. From there, the WSOP Main Event will continue through Tuesday, July 14th, at which point it will break until the fall, when the November Nine will return to the Rio to play it out to the end.
The November Nine is structured a bit differently this year. The final table will begin on Sunday, November 8th, but rather than play down to two or three players, it will play down to four on that first day. Those four will be narrowed down to one on November 9th, and the heads-up match will take place on November 10th. It should make for easier viewing for fans, as it will shorten the days a bit (though the poker will still likely go on well into the night).
Also different is the payout structure. WSOP officials decided to reward more players for days of poker play this year, paying out to 1,000 places. The minimum payout will be $15,000 provided the field reaches a size of at least 5,000 players. If the Main Event field meets or beats last year’s 6,683, the minimum final table payout will be $1 million.
Aside from the Main Event, perhaps the most highly anticipated event is the Colossus. Players won’t have long to wait for it, either, as the $565 No-Limit Hold’em tourney will begin this Friday. It is the cheapest open event in WSOP history and WSOP organizers believe it will smash live tournament attendance records. In a conference call earlier this month, WSOP Executive Director Ty Stewart said, “If it is not by a large margin the largest event in the history of poker, it will be a disappointment.”
It is expected to be so large that it will have four starting flights, two on Friday and two on Saturday. Those who bust out of an opening flight can try again in any (or all) subsequent flights for an additional buy-in, of course. In addition, any player who does make it to the end of a flight but is not happy with their chip stack can opt to forfeit their chips and re-enter another flight.
The Colossus has a $5 million guaranteed prize pool.
There will be two events today at the World Series of Poker. Event #1 is the usual $565 Casino Employees No-Limit Hold’em, starting at noon, and Event #2, beginning at 4:00pm, is $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em.
