Though the eyes of the poker world are on the final three players in the 2023 World Series of Poker Main Event, Monday is also a big day for smaller buy-in, regional players, as it marks the start of the 2023-2023 WSOP Circuit season. Aside from a holiday break in December, the schedule is nearly continuous through May of next year.
Kicking off the schedule on July 17 is WSOP Circuit Choctaw Durant at the Choctaw Casino Resort in Oklahoma. Today’s event is the $250 Seniors Event. Tomorrow, though, is when the ring events get going, beginning with Flight A of the $300 No-Limit Hold’em Monster Stack tournament. All told, there will be 17 ring events at Choctaw, plus an additional Seniors Event and Ladies Event.
The $1,700 Main Event is a three flight, three-day event starting July 27.
There are 23 tour stops currently listed on the schedule, though the WSOP Circuit press release from three weeks ago says 25. Most of the locations are the same as last year, though there are two new venues: Graton Casino in Rohnert Park, California, and Horseshoe Hammond in Indiana.
Several venues have multiple stops, including Choctaw, Harrah’s Cherokee (North Carolina), Grand Victoria Casino (Illinois), Hard Rock Tulsa, and Isle of Capri (Florida).
“We are on pace to make history with the largest WSOP of all time this year and have already hosted ten record-breaking events so far at the 2023 WSOP,” said Senior Vice President and Executive Director of the World Series of Poker Ty Stewart in June, before the record-breaking Main Event. “As the excitement around the game of poker continues to grow exponentially, we expect this energy to roll into the WSOP Circuit the summer, setting some records along the way as well.”
Similar to this year, the $1 million freeroll WSOP Circuit Tournament of Champions will be held at the 2024 World Series of Poker, open to every gold ring winner from live or online WSOP Circuit events.
Not every WSOP Circuit stop has the same schedule, as host venues have some freedom to structure things how they want or to comply with local regulations, but there won’t be any significant variations from casino to casino. Every stop will have at least 12 ring events and all are encouraged to include Seniors and Ladies events. Most WSOP Circuit stops will begin on Thursday (the Choctaw Durant opener being an exception) and most Main Events will begin on the second Friday of the stop. Tournament structures and payouts are standardized across the WSOP Circuit.
After Choctaw Durant, the WSOP Circuit moves on to Harrah’s Cherokee August 3-14, Graton Casino August 10-21, and Hard Tulsa August 16-27.