This week, the World Series of Poker (WSOP) kicked off its 2009 season from the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas amid large fanfare. On Tuesday, May 26th, players flocked to the Rio as the festivities officially opened up with the first event of the year, the $500 buy-in Casino Employees No Limit Hold’em tournament. Winners, chip stack updates, and interviews can be found here on Poker News Daily, but we polled players and trolled forums to get a pulse on what players think about the 2009 WSOP.
Many within the poker industry and business community at large predicted nothing but doom and gloom for Sin City in 2009, with events potentially being the smallest since the Moneymaker era began. Early indicators are that the $1,000 to $1,5000 No Limit Hold’em events will be the big draws this year, as there are nine events within that range that have a variety of entry requirements (Open, Ladies, and Seniors) and table types (full ring or six-handed). In Event #4, the $1,000 buy-in No Limit Hold’em contest, all 6,000 seats were sold out, making it the largest non-Main Event field in WSOP history.
This surprisingly positive news for the WSOP comes on the heels of the announcement that the $40,000 buy-in No Limit Hold’em tournament held to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the WSOP boasted the largest non-Main Event prize pool in history at $7.7 million. In addition, yet another WSOP record was broken when 918 players registered for Event #3, the $1,500 buy-in Omaha High-Low Split tournament, making it the largest such WSOP event ever held.
“Frankly, I really am shocked to see this many people out here,” commented Pat McVeigh, a professional cash game grinder who lives year-round in Las Vegas. “There’s no way I would have believed that the $1,000 event would have sold out at 6,000 people. It’s unbelievable. Fortunately, a lot of the tournament players are horrible at cash games, so it means business is good for me.”
Fortunately for poker players, it seems that most of Las Vegas is relatively quiet. Most Las Vegas hotels are running weekly specials that were previously unheard of, such as rooms at Caesars Palace, which normally run in the neighborhood of $349 per night, being booked for $129. Poker players making their way out to Las Vegas are encouraged to negotiate a better rate or inquire about special poker room discounts. Harrah’s is even running specials during the WSOP Main Event for hotels on the Strip running as low as $35 per night.
“In all my years living out here, I’ve never seen summer rates like I’m seeing now,” said live tournament aficionado Melissa Peterkin, who added that with rates so low at Caesars Palace, she plans to take advantage of the offer multiple times this summer during the WSOP. On many of the popular online poker forums, even players who do not have the bankroll to compete in these large tournaments are heading out to Las Vegas to enjoy a cheap vacation and get in on the side action of smaller buy-in tournaments. It should all add up for a great summer of poker in Las Vegas.
