I don’t know about you, but I feel like the World Series of Poker just started. But now we are at the point where the end is in sight and the $10,000 Main Event is about to begin. The most highly-anticipated live poker tournament of the year gets underway Thursday and will run through November 17.
The structure of the tournament is mostly the same as it has been in the several years before the pandemic, the main exception being the beginning. There are six starting flights, rather than four, as originally scheduled. The first four, Days 1A through 1D, will be November 4-7, each starting at 11:00am and each lasting five levels.
The two new starting flights, Days 1E and 1F, will be on November 9 and November 10, respectively. Everything about them is the same, except that Day 1F begins at noon. These two days were added to accommodate international players. In late September, the Biden Administration announced the COVID-19-related travel restrictions would begin to ease on November 1, thus giving poker players from outside the United States a better opportunity to get to Las Vegas for the WSOP.
As such, the WSOP added those two starting flights to give those making the last-minute decision to book flights an easier time to get to the Rio.
The extra Day 1s also made it necessary to rearrange the schedule for Day 2s. Days 2A, 2B, and 2D – featuring the survivors from the associated Day 1s – will be on Tuesday, November 9. Days 2C, 2E, and 2F will be the following day, November 10.
It is on Day 2, that late registration will close, after Level 7. So those who did not play on Day 1 can still get into the game within the first four hours of either of the Day 2 “days.”
From there, all remaining players will be combined into a single field starting on Day 3, November 11. Play will keep going every day with no days off. On Monday, November 15, the final table of nine players will be determined.
The final table will commence on November 16 and will play down until four players remain. The champion will be crowned on November 17. During those two final table days, there will be no extended breaks for dinner, but rather shorter breaks throughout the day/night for television.
Tournament organizers expect the money bubble to burst early on Day 4.
Image credit: PokerGO.com