A full house is expected for Saturday’s $1,000 buy-in Stimulus Special tournament held as part of the 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP). Harrah’s officials have cautioned that players may be turned away from the event, which has two starting days.
Interested entrants are encouraged to pre-register for the tournament, which begins on Saturday with the first of two Day 1s and crowns a champion on Wednesday. It’s the least expensive event on the schedule and occurs nearly back-to-back with the ongoing $40,000 buy-in No Limit Hold’em contest commemorating the 40th running of the WSOP. That event has the tournament series’ second largest buy-in.
An e-mail sent out by WSOP officials noted that spots are filling up quickly for the affordable four-figure buy-in contest: “One of the downsides of such a huge event is that some players could be shut out. We kindly ask our media colleagues to spread the word to all poker players that they need to register for this event quickly at the risk of being a complete sell-out. We know many players travel from great distances to play in WSOP events and through your voice we will let players know that they need to act fast.”
There has not been a $1,000 open freezeout event since 2007, when the WSOP schedule included a Seven Card Stud High-Low Eight or Better tournament with the affordable price tag. It attracted 668 runners and was ultimately won by Tom Schneider, who defeated Hoyt Verner heads-up. The two most recent $1,000 open No Limit Hold’em freezeout events occurred in 2006. Event #17 generated a field of 2,891 players. In the end, Jon “pokertrip” Friedberg recorded his first WSOP bracelet win, besting John “The Razor” Phan heads-up. The 40th tournament of the 2006 WSOP attracted a comparatively smaller field of 1,100 players, with Praz Bansi coming out on top for 230 times his buy-in. Finishing as the runner-up was An Lu, who banked $120,000.
As of Friday afternoon, the Stimulus Special tournament already had 3,000 players registered, up from 2,500 one day earlier. Harrah’s officials expect the largest non-Main Event turnout in history. WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack told Poker News Daily, “The $1,000 buy-in No Limit Hold’em tournament is a way to open with a bang in a popular form of poker. It has a very reasonable buy-in and we had some big events last year at $1,500. For the economy, we dialed the buy-in down to $1,000. It’s going to be a special event and we’re having Jack Binion giving the ‘Shuffle up and deal’ command.” The tournament kicks off at Noon local time on Saturday. Day 1B on Sunday will also begin at Noon.
In the background of the $1,000 Stimulus Special tournament will be the play down days in both the $40,000 buy-in No Limit Hold’em event (#2) and the $1,500 buy-in Omaha High-Low Split Eight or Better contest (Event #3). At 918 entrants, the latter event became the largest Omaha High-Low Split tournament in WSOP history. On the first events of the 40th running of the WSOP, Pollack commented, “We’re feeling great and we’re off to an awesome start. The first few days have been very smooth. We had an awesome turnout for the $40,000 event and registration for the $1,000 event is looking strong. There was a lot of buzz and a lot of media on-hand covering the WSOP.”
Players will begin the $1,000 buy-in festivities with 3,000 in chips. Blinds start at 25-25 and each level lasts 60 minutes. Antes kick in beginning with Level 6, when blinds will be 100-200. A total of 10 levels are scheduled to be played on Day 1A and Day 1B and the combined field will hit the felts at 2:00pm local time on Monday for Day 2. A total of 10% of the prize pool will be reserved for tournament staff and entry fees.
