The complete schedule for the 2016 World Series of Poker at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas was unveiled yesterday; the 47th annual running of the world’s most popular poker festival will begin on Wednesday, June 1st and conclude on Thursday, July 14th.
The 2016 WSOP technically begins on Tuesday, May 31st, but that day is filled only with cash games, daily Deep Stack tournaments, and satellites. The actual WSOP events begin on Wednesday with, as always, the $565 Casino Employees No-Limit Hold’em Event.
The next day features The Colossus II, a three starting day, six starting flight $565 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em Event. The WSOP has upped the ante for the Colossus this year, guaranteeing a $7 million prize pool and at least $1 million to the winner. Last year’s winner, Cord Garcia, took home $638,880. This year, the tournament will be structured so that the money bubble will burst in each Day 1 flight in order to try to lighten up the congestion at the cashier that occurred last year when player after player busted out on Day 2. And because the tournament is re-entry, allowing players who bust in one starting flight to pay another buy-in to try again in a subsequent starting flight, it is possible that some players will cash on more than one Day 1. As the starting flights will not end as soon as the money bubble bursts, a player could make the money and then lose all of his chips before the night ends. He could then re-enter on a different day and cash once again. Theoretically, someone could cash six times in the Colossus.
Of course, all eyes will be on the Main Event, which is the second-to-last of the 69 events. The 10,000 No-Limit Hold’em tournament will again have three starting days, beginning on July 9th. Day 2A will be on July 12th and will be for the players who made it through Days 1A and 1B. Day 2C, for the survivors of Day 1C, will be on July 13th. The summer portion of the Main Event will end on July 17th, when the nine-handed final table is determined.
Those final nine players will still be called the “November Nine,” but the final table will actually begin on October 30th this year, as the WSOP is pushing it earlier to make way for the Presidential election, as it did in 2012.
There are eight new events this year, two of which look particularly interesting. Event #4 is the $1,000 Top Up Turbo No-Limit Hold’em Event, a hybrid live/online tournament. It will mostly play like a regular, live WSOP tourney, but players who qualify via the $55 satellites on WSOP.com or live at the Rio can double their starting chip stack in the $1,000 tournament. Supposedly information on exactly how to earn those extra chips will be available online, but it hasn’t been posted yet. Information will also be available at the Rio.
One of the last events, Event #61, is the $1,000 Tag Team No-Limit Hold’em tournament. In this one, two to four players register to together for one seat. One at a time plays, but they can switch in and out whenever they want as long as each player completes at least one round of blinds. Every member of the winning team receives their own bracelet.
Here is the complete list of new events for 2016:
June 5: Event #4 – $1,000 Top Up Turbo No-Limit Hold’em
June 9: Event #12 – $565 Pot-Limit Omaha with re-entry
June 15: Event #23 – $2,000 No-Limit Hold’em
June 23: Event #40 – $2,500 Mixed Triple Draw Lowball; Limit A-5, 2-7 and Badugi
June 26: Event #45 – $1,500 Mixed No-Limit Hold’em/Pot-Limit Omaha
June 30: Event #53 – $1,500 Mixed Pot-Limit Omaha-8/Omaha-8/Big O
July 1: Event #54 A/B/C/D – $888 Crazy Eights Eight-Handed No-Limit Hold’em – $888,888 guaranteed for 1st
July 7: Event #61 – $1,000 Tag Team No-Limit Hold’em