PartyPoker,
the worlds third largest online poker room,
is offering up 1.8 million prize cards as part of
its Card Rush Instant Win promotion in April. The
promotion will run through April 30th or until the
prize cards are given away and offers numerous chances
to earn extra cash by playing on the site this month.
You
can obtain a Card Rush card simply by playing in a
real money game on PartyPoker and earning points.
The first card will cost five points and subsequent
cards will cost 15 points. Players may obtain up to
50 cards per day, but the promotion will end when
all 1.8 million are assigned.
Each
card will instantly give players a monetary prize
between $1 and $5,000, a points prize up to 25,000,
or entry into a freeroll. The freerolls will run on
the following days:
Card
Rush $2,000 Freeroll May 5th at 1:00pm ET
Card Rush $15,000 Freeroll May 5th at 2:30pm
ET
Card Rush $3,000 Freeroll May 6th at 1:00pm
ET
Card Rush $10,000 Freeroll May 6th at 2:30pm
ET
Card Rush $5,000 Freeroll May 7th at 1:00pm
ET
Card Rush $7,000 Freeroll May 7th at 2:30pm
ET
Card Rush $20,000 Freeroll May 8th at 1:00pm
ET
Players
can also earn cash in the Card Rush Race, a leaderboard
that will pay the top 200 point-earners a minimum
of $100. Points will be awarded as part of the Card
Rush promotion ranging from one to 20 points per card.
The more points a player earns, the more money theyll
receive. Heres a look at the payouts:
1st
place $9,000
2nd place $7,000
3rd place $5,250
4th place $4,000
5th place $3,500
6th place $3,000
7th place $2,500
8th place $2,000
9th place $1,500
10th place $1,000
11th-18th places $800
19th-30th places $700
31st-45th places $600
46th-60th places $500
61st-75th places $400
76th-100th places $300
101st-125th places $200
126th-150th places $150
151st-200th places $50
In
addition, every 20th spot from 220 to 2,000 will earn
a Hot Spot prize of $50.
PartyPoker
is also running daily qualifiers to the 2011 World
Series of Poker (WSOP) in Las Vegas. Qualifiers are
running now until June 19th, with satellites available
for as little as $2. Each $14,000 package includes
the $10,000 Main Event buy-in, travel and eight days
hotel accommodations, and $2,000 spending money.
There
are also special qualifiers exclusively for first-time
depositors. Every month, new players can enter an
exclusive freeroll to win one of 10 seats, each worth
$750, in the WSOP weekly satellite.
PartyGaming,
which owns and operates PartyPoker,
recently merged with bwin to form the largest gambling
group in the world. With the merger, Party Gaming
hopes to even the playing field in the online poker
arena as it positions itself to re-enter the U.S.
market.
The
new company also hopes the merge will expand the PartyPoker
brand in Europe. bwin previously resided on the Ongame
Network, but now combines its client base with PartyPoker
to create the third largest online poker room in the
world. (Credit:
Poker News Daily)
World
Series of Poker Kicks off Friday, Tom Jenkins - 29th
May 2010
(Poker News Daily)
Were
just two days away from the start of the 2010 World
Series of Poker (WSOP). The games elite and
a host of amateurs will descend upon Las Vegas on
Friday to capture one of 57 bracelets up for grabs
and claim riches in a slew of cash games and side
events. The Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino will serve
as the epicenter of the poker world until July 17th.
The
first two days promise to feature record-setting fields
and a high caliber of poker talent. On Friday at Noon
PT, the annual $500 Casino Employees No Limit Holdem
tournament will begin. Last year, 866 players turned
out for the contest, with Andrew Cohen emerging victorious
for $83,000.
Starting
at 5:00pm PT on Friday is the first ever running of
the $50,000 Players Championship, which will
air as part of ESPNs coverage of the 2010 WSOP.
Entrants will test their prowess at Limit Holdem,
Omaha High-Low Split Eight or Better, Seven Card Razz,
Seven Card Stud, Seven Card Stud High-Low Split Eight
or Better, No Limit Holdem, Pot Limit Omaha,
and 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball. The tournament is the
most expensive on the 2010 WSOP slate.
Last
years $50,000 HORSE Championship, which the
Players Championship replaces, attracted just
95 players. David Bach defeated John Hanson heads-up
and banked $1.2 million. Also making the eight-handed
final table were Vitaly Lunkin, Huck Seed, Chau Giang,
and 2010 National Heads-Up Poker Championship runner
up Erik Seidel. The HORSE Championship will revert
to a $10,000 buy-in this year.
On
Saturday, the first of six open $1,000 buy-in No Limit
Holdem events will kick off. In 2009, the WSOP
featured the Stimulus Special, a $1,000 No Limit Holdem
tournament that attracted 6,012 players. Twenty-four
year-old Steve Sung from California emerged victorious
and earned $771,000 for the win. The Stimulus Special
attracted the largest non-Main Event field in WSOP
history, crushing the previous record by 53%.
Each
open $1,000 buy-in tournament features two starting
days. Besides May 29th to 30th, other $1,000 events
will kick off on June 5th and 6th, June 12th and 13th,
June 19th and 20th, June 26th and 27th, and July 1st
and 2nd. Each event is scheduled to stretch for four
days, although Harrahs officials noted that
the tournaments might take an extra day to complete
depending on the field size.
This
year, the Rio Pavilion, the site of the former Gaming
Life Expo and PokerPalooza, will add 58,000 square
feet of gaming space to the WSOPs inventory.
Across the hall, the Amazon Room will house restarts
and final tables. Only two rooms will be used and
all bracelet ceremonies, which feature the national
anthem of the winning country being played, will pan
out in the Pavilion. No Expo will take place in 2010,
although interactive exhibits will line the halls
of the Rio Convention Center throughout the entire
duration of the WSOP.
Four
events are on deck for the 2010 WSOPs opening
weekend. Heres what poker players have to look
forward to come Friday:
Friday,
May 28th at 12:00pm PT
Event #1: Casino Employees No Limit Holdem
$500 buy-in
Friday,
May 28th at 5:00pm PT
Event #2: The Players Championship
$50,000 buy-in
Saturday,
May 29th at 12:00pm PT
Event #3: No Limit Holdem
$1,000 buy-in
Sunday,
May 30th at 5:00pm PT
Event #4: Omaha High-Low Split Eight or Better
$1,500 buy-in
The
Main Event begins on July 5th with the first of four
starting days. It will play down to a nine-handed
final table on July 17th before being paused until
November. (Credit:
Poker News Daily)
One
events that has grown in numbers as well as prestige
at the World Series of Poker (WSOP) over the past
few years has been the Ladies’ No Limit Hold’em
Championship. Since 2005, when Jennifer Tilly captured
the title against 600 other players, the tournament
has doubled in size and routinely drawn well over
1,000 players for each event in succeeding years (reaching
an apex of 1,286 in 2007). It’s
probably a matter of time before the poker
rooms online start offering satellites to the
Ladies Event. The tournament, while a competition,
has also allowed an elite organization to make its
mark through charitable means.
The
Queens of Heart organization has been a part of the
event since 2006, drawing attention to women’s
health issues and raising over $100,000 for charities
such as the Nevada Cancer Institute and the American
Heart Association through the team’s winnings.
This year, one player will have a chance to stand
beside the ladies as a member of the Queens of Heart
by proving she is the best player over a four week
series.
Starting
on January 24th, there will be a series of four tournaments
(the three other dates for tournaments are February
28th, March 28th, and April 25th) called the Queens
of Heart League, held at Harrah’s
in Las
Vegas at noon. The $80+$20 buy-in events will
be for women only and, at the end of the four tournaments,
the overall winner will earn a prestigious seat alongside
the other ladies making up the Queens of Heart at
this year’s Ladies tournament at the WSOP. In
addition to the seat at the Ladies’ WSOP event,
the league champion will also join her teammates in
a luncheon with WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack
on the Saturday before the event.
While
the team has yet to be announced for 2009, the roster
of players who have played for the Queens of Heart
in the past reads like a who’s who of the celebrity
and poker worlds. Celebrity stars such as actresses
Mimi Rogers, Joely Fisher, Teri Hatcher, Cheryl Hines,
Camryn Manheim, and author Jackie Collins have been
members. Professional poker players such as 2006 WSOP
Ladies Event runner-up Shawnee Barton, 2007 WSOP Ladies
Event champion Sally Anne Boyer, two-time Ladies Event
winner Barbara Enright, Maureen Feduniak, Clonie Gowen,
Poker News Daily Columnist Linda Johnson, 2006 WSOP
Ladies champion Mary Jones, and 2007 Legends of Poker
Ladies champion Pamela Brunson have also lent their
efforts as members of the team.
In
the past, the Queens of Heart league event had been
run by one of the co-founders of the organization,
Lisa Tenner, and her group Tenner and Associates.
This year, however, the WSOP is assuming operation
of the league, which Tenner views favorably. “I
am honored about the incredible success, charity,
and awareness for good health that Tenner and Associates
brought to the World Series of Poker on behalf of
‘Queens of Heart’ and the move to having
the league led by the WSOP is a win-win for all concerned,”
stated Tenner in a press release. “I am also
proud that the ‘Queens of Heart’ is a
part of the history, tradition, and the future of
the WSOP.”
The
Queens of Heart organization has shown that while
poker is a competitive activity, it is focused on
charity as well.
Move
over, Super Bowl. There’s a new sheriff in town.
On Sunday, February 1st, the first four of episodes
of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Europe Main Event
will air on ESPN at 6:00pm ET; there will be eight
episodes in total. The Super Bowl, which is one of
the world’s most watched sporting events, kicks
off at 6:30pm ET.
At
10:00pm ET on February 1st, an encore presentation
of the first two episodes will air on ESPN2 for those
who were watching “The Big Game.” The
WSOP Europe festivities consisted of four separate
tournaments, culminating in a £10,350 buy-in
event that drew 362 players. At the end of the day,
Full Tilt Poker pro John Juanda became just the second
WSOP Europe Main Event champion ever, joining Annette
“Annette_15” Obrestad, who won the prestigious
title in 2007.
ESPN
Senior Director of Communications, George McNeilly,
told Poker News Daily, “An opportunity presented
itself to air the WSOP-Europe in prime time on ESPN.
We always strive to serve the widest variety of sports
fans and we hope poker fans tune in for the prime
time episodes.”
The
WSOP Europe tournaments were held at the Casino at
the Empire in London’s Leicester Square. The
epicenter of the city’s theater district, Leicester
Square also houses several casinos. Doug White, ESPN’s
Senior Director of Programming and Acquisitions, commented
in a press release that the atmosphere of this event
is vastly different than the one filmed at the Rio
in Las Vegas: “The intimate look and feel of
this tournament is different from other WSOP events
we produced in the United States.” The press
release explains that players at the Casino at the
Empire were seated “in a side room, under the
stairs, behind the bar, near the roulette tables,
and in front of an ice cream shop.”
ESPN
is also employing a mobile hole card camera in order
to be able to show what players hold in key hands
no matter where they are seated. In the past, ESPN
has used the Henry Orenstein invention only for its
feature table as well as “Table 2.” Jamie
Horowitz, ESPN’s Senior Sports Producer, explained
the importance of this addition for WSOP Europe’s
coverage: “We believe the Mobile Hole Card Camera
will provide fans a great understanding of the overall
story behind the tournament, and how the players advanced
to the final table.”
Super
Bowl XLIII will be held in Tampa, Florida on February
1st. The game pits the top team from the National
Football Conference (NFC) against the top team from
the American Football Conference (AFC). The game kicks
off at 6:30pm ET and will go head to head with ESPN’s
WSOP Europe coverage. The Super Bowl is viewed in
dozens of countries around the world and advertising
spots regularly come with a seven-figure price tag.
The NFL playoffs will enter their Divisional round
this weekend, with the Tennessee Titans, Pittsburgh
Steelers, Baltimore Ravens, and San Diego Chargers
remaining in the hunt for the AFC. In the NFC, the
defending champion New York Giants, Carolina Panthers,
Arizona Cardinals, and Philadelphia Eagles are still
in contention.
The
schedule for the WSOP Europe on ESPN2 is as follows:
Sunday,
February 1st
10:00pm: Episode #1
11:00pm: Episode #2
Sunday,
February 8th
10:00pm: Episode #3
11:00pm: Episode #4
Sunday,
February 15th
10:00pm: Episode #5
11:00pm: Episode #6
Sunday,
March 1st
10:00pm: Episode #7
11:00pm: Episode #8
The
WSOP Europe Main Event attracted all of the heavy
hitters in the poker world. The final table featured
WSOP November Nine member Ivan Demidov, who became
the first person ever to reach the final tables of
both the WSOP and WSOP Europe Main Events in the same
year; Demidov finished third in London and second
in Las Vegas for well over $6 million total. Also
seated at the WSOP Europe Main Event final table are
Daniel Negreanu and Scott Fischman. Lon McEachern
and Norman Chad will provide commentary for the event.
The
World Series of Poker is the largest set of poker
tournaments in the world. It is held annually
in Las
Vegas, lasting just over a month. A bracelet is
awarded to the winner of each of the fifty-plus events
which include all the major varieties of poker. The
series culminates with the $10,000 no-limit hold'em
"Main Event", which in recent years has
attracted entry fields numbering in the thousands,
with the victor receiving a multi-million dollar prize.
Origins
The
original World Series of Poker was started in 1968
by Tom Moore of San Antonio, Texas,
at the Holiday Hotel and Casino in Reno and was an
invitational event. This inaugural event was won by
Crandell Addington who went on to place in the top
ten of the World Series of Poker Main Event eight
times, a record that still stands as of 2007. The
set of tournaments that the World Series of Poker
(WSOP) would evolve into was the brainchild of Las
Vegas casino owner and poker player Benny Binion,
as well as his two sons Jack and Ted.
The
Binion family nurtured not only the WSOP, but poker
in general. Prior to the 1970s, poker was not found
at many casinos because of the difficulty of keeping
cheaters out. Through better security techniques as
well as the Binion's tireless promotion through events
like the WSOP, poker became a very popular game.
In
1970, the first WSOP at Binion's Horseshoe took place
as a series of cash games that included five-card
stud, deuce to seven low-ball draw, razz, seven-card
stud, and Texas hold 'em. The format for the Main
Event as a freeze-out Texas hold 'em game came the
next year. The winner in 1970, Johnny Moss, was elected
by his peers as the first World Champion of Poker
and received a silver cup as a prize.
Evolution
From
1971 on, all WSOP events have been tournaments with
cash prizes. In 1973 a new event, Five-card stud,
was added to the main event of no limit Texas hold
'em. Since then new events have been added and removed.
In 2006 there were 45 events at the WSOP, covering
the majority of poker variants. Currently, Texas
hold 'Em, Omaha hold 'em and Seven-card stud and
their lowball variants (if any) are played. H.O.R.S.E.
has been played in the past and returned in 2006.
Also, S.H.O.E. has been played in the past, and returned
in 2007. Other events played in the past include Chinese
poker, Five card stud, and many others. Each event
winner gets a coveted gold bracelet as well as the
grand prize money, which by tradition is paid in cash
brought in cardboard boxes.
Phil
Hellmuth has the most bracelets with eleven. Runners-up
Doyle Brunson and Johnny Chan have each won ten bracelets.
Doyle's son, Todd Brunson, won a bracelet in a $2,500
Omaha Eight-or-better event in 2005, making them the
first and only father/son combo to win at least one
event at the WSOP. Also, celebrities Patrick Bruel,
Jan Vang Sørensen and Jennifer Tilly have won
WSOP bracelets in 1998, 2002 and 2005 respectively.
The
number of participants in the WSOP has grown almost
every year, and in recent years the growth has exploded.
In 2000 there were 4,780 entrants in the various events,
but in 2005, the number rose to over 23,000 players.
In the main event alone, the number of participants
grew from 839 in 2003 to 8,773 in 2006. This was known
as the "Moneymaker Effect", named after
unknown rookie Chris Moneymaker, who won the main
event after having qualified for just $39 through
a satellite tournament. Much of this growth can also
be attributed to the WSOP airing on ESPN
and the World
Poker Tour being shown on the Travel Channel,
along with other televised series, as well as the
boom of online poker.
Like
most tournaments, the sponsoring casino takes an entry
fee (a percentage between 6% and 10%, depending on
the buy-in) and distributes the rest, hence the prize
money increases with more players. In the 2005 main
event $52,818,610 (US) in prize money was distributed
among 560 players, with $7.5 million to first prize.
Harrah's
Takes "The Pot"
In
2004, Harrah's
Entertainment purchased Binion's
Horseshoe, kept the rights to the Horseshoe and
World Series of Poker brands, sold the hotel and casino
to MTR Gaming Group, and announced that the 2005 Series
events would be held at the Harrah's-owned Rio Hotel
and Casino, located just off the Las
Vegas Strip. The final two days of the main event
in 2005 were held downtown at what is now the MTR
operated "Binion's" in celebration of the
centennial of the founding of Las Vegas. It also added
a made-for-television $2 million "freeroll"
invitational "Tournament of Champions" (TOC)
event first won by Annie Duke as a "winner-take-all"
event.
Starting
in 2005, the WSOP began a tournament "circuit"
at Harrah's-owned properties in the United States
where in addition to the $10,000 buy-in tournament
at each site, qualifying players became eligible for
a revamped Tournament of Champions. The 2005 TOC,
made up of the top twenty qualifying players at each
circuit event, along with the final table from the
2005 Main Event and the winners of nine or more bracelets
(Johnny Chan, Doyle Brunson, and Phil Hellmuth) would
participate in the revamped TOC at Caesar's Palace.
Mike "The Mouth" Matusow won the first prize
of $1 million (US), and all the players at the final
table were guaranteed a minimum of $25,000 for the
eighth and ninth place finishers. During a break in
the final table of the 2005 Main Event on July 16,
Harrah's announced that eleven properties —
including the recently added Bally's and Caesar's
properties — would host 2005-06 WSOP Circuit
events that started on August 11 in Tunica, Mississippi.
One event, that was scheduled for Biloxi, Mississippi
was canceled after the Grand Casino Biloxi, which
was scheduled to host the event, suffered major damage
from Hurricane Katrina.
The
Rio also hosted the 2006 World Series of Poker, which
began on June 25 with satellite events and formally
began the day after with the annual Casino Employee
event, won in 2006 by Chris Gros. 2006 featured the
"Tournament of Champions" on June 25 and
26, won by Mike Sexton. Various events led up to the
main event, which was held from July 28 until August
10. The first prize of $12 million was awarded to
Jamie Gold.
The Marketing of the WSOP
Like
any event or sports league, the WSOP also has corporate
sponsors and licensed products which pay fees to market
themselves as an official sponsor and/or licensee
and exclusively use the WSOP insignia and cross-promote
with their events. Besides the Harrah's properties
and ESPN, major sponsors have included Miller Brewing's
"Milwaukee's Best" brand of beers, Pepsi's
SoBe Adrenaline Rush energy drink (sponsors of the
2005 TOC), Helene Curtis' Degree brand of anti-perspirant/deodorant,
United States Playing Card's Bicycle Pro Cards, Bluff
magazine, GlaxoSmithKline/Bayer's Levitra erectile
dysfunction medicine, and The Hershey Company. Licensees
include Glu Mobile, Activision (video games for different
platforms such as Nintendo's GameCube, Microsoft's
Xbox, Sony'sPlayStation
2 and PC featuring computer generated versions of
stars like Ferguson among others), and products made
by different companies ranging from chip sets, playing
cards, hand held games and clothing like caps and
shirts. The fees and licenses bring in more than a
million dollars to Harrah's.
WSOP television coverage
The
earliest filming of the World Series was a special
produced by Binion's
Horseshoe in 1973 and narrated by Jimmy "The
Greek" Snyder. CBS began covering the World Series
in the late 1970s. In the early 1980s, the event was
again broadcast as specials. In the late 1980s, the
World Series returned to television as ESPN took over
broadcasting. Initially, coverage consisted of just
a single one hour taped delay broadcast of the main
event. ESPN Classic currently airs many of the old
broadcasts, especially from the mid 1990s and beyond.
The most striking thing about the early coverage is
how little was actually shown, since no "pocket
cam" existed. Generally, ESPN
used poker-playing actors such as Dick Van Patten,
Vince Van Patten, and Gabe Kaplan, with either the
tournament director (usually Jim Albrecht) or a poker
pro like Phil Hellmuth joining the team. Early coverage
was relatively primitive compared to what ESPN does
now, with no pre-taped interviews or profiles on the
players. The commentators were actually on the casino
floor itself. The 2002 WSOP was the first with the
"sneak peek" (later called the pocket cam,
or hole cam). 2003 was the first year that the broadcast
covered action preceding the final table.
Since
then, ESPN has greatly expanded its coverage to include
many of the preliminary events of the WSOP, especially
Texas Hold 'Em. Also, their coverage of the main event
now typically includes at least one hour program on
each day. For the first two years of its existence,
ESPN was broadcasting one hour programs of the "circuit"
events that the WSOP has at various Harrah's-owned
casinos, but ESPN did not renew these events. ESPN's
coverage now includes many of the trappings of sports
coverage, such as lighter segments (called "The
Nuts") and interviews.
ESPN's
coverage has been largely driven by Matt Maranz, Executive
Producer for the WSOP telecasts. Maranz leads 441
Productions, which produces the telecast under contract
to ESPN's unit ESPN Original Entertainment (EOE).
Maranz has significant sports production experience,
having previously worked on ESPN's football pre-game
show, and has also produced taped segments for NBC's
Olympic coverage.
In
2000 and 2001, the World Series of Poker was broadcast
by The Discovery Channel. These hour long programs
presented more of an overview or recap of the WSOP
as opposed to broadcasting an actual live event with
play-by-play analysis and color commentary. The Discovery
Channel's broadcast also featured final table players
interviews interlaced throughout the show. ESPN would
resume coverage the following year.
ESPN's
coverage in 2002 was typical of their coverage in
the 1990s (recorded in video, little or no post-production
commentary or player profiles, no card cams). However,
the final table broadcast was expanded over two one-hour
episodes.
In
2003, ESPN expanded their coverage to new heights
with their coverage of the WSOP. They included coverage
of the entire tournament, with a "Featured Table".
At this table, the viewers could see the player's
hole cards and subsequent strategy. The action was
also broadcast as if live, though on tape-delay. This
level of coverage arguably led to the popularity boom
of No-Limit Texas
Hold 'Em.
Coverage
would increase in 2004 and 2005 to include preliminary
events from the WSOP, in addition to the "Main
Event".
ESPN
has expanded poker to all-new levels, especially with
their coverage of the 2006 WSOP, including providing
the entire final table of the 2006 Main Event via
pay-per-view airing.
WSOP
Broadcasters
2007
(ESPN) - Lon McEachern and Norman Chad; Phil Gordon
and Ali Nejad in Main Event Pay-per-view; (ESPN Deportes/ESPN
Latin America - Spanish) - Gabriela Hill and Fernando
Alvarez
The
Main Event
The
Main Event of the WSOP has been the $10,000 buy-in
no-limit Texas
Hold 'Em (TXHE) tournament since 1972. (In 1971,
the buy-in was $5,000.) Winners of the event not only
get the largest prize of the tournament and a gold
bracelet, but additionally their picture is placed
into the Gallery of Champions at Binion's.
The
winner of the Main Event has traditionally been given
the unofficial title of World Champion. However the
game's top professionals have stated that the recently-added
$50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event is the one which ultimately
decides the world's best player. H.O.R.S.E. is an
event in which Hold 'em, Omaha, Razz, Seven Card Stud
and Eight-or-better are all played. The H.O.R.S.E.
tournament was won by Chip Reese in 2006 and Freddy
Deeb in 2007. It should be noted that the professionals
played a major role in convincing WSOP management
to stage an event with a much larger buy-in than the
Main Event; the growth of poker tournaments and the
World Series (by way of "The Moneymaker Effect")
had resulted in fields with a far greater number of
amateurs in proportion to professionals. Hence, the
Main Event now has a much greater likelihood of producing
winners who are amateurs and/or relatively unknown
players. The professionals sought to create an event
which was far more likely to produce a more well-rounded
poker professional as the eventual winner. The $50,000
buy-in, being five times larger than the buy-in for
the Main Event, has thus far tended to deter amateurs
from playing in the H.O.R.S.E. tournament.
There
have been many memorable moments during the main events,
including Jack Straus's 1982 comeback win after discovering
he had one $500 chip left when he thought he was out
of the tournament.
Four
players have won the main event multiple times: Johnny
Moss (1971 and 1974), Doyle Brunson (1976 and 1977),
Stu Ungar (1980, 1981 and 1997) and Johnny Chan (1987
and 1988).
The
end of the 1988 main event was featured in the movie
Rounders.
Chris
Moneymaker and Greg Raymer, the winners in 2003 and
2004, both qualified for the main event through satellite
tournaments at the PokerStars online cardroom.
Jerry
Yang, the winner in 2007, had only been playing poker
for two years prior to his victory. He won his seat
at a $225 satellite tournament at Pechanga Resort
& Casino.
All
players (including former champions, celebrities,
and professional poker players) must supply the $10,000
buy-in in order to participate.
Player
of the Year
Since
2004, a Player of the Year Award has been given to
the player with the most points accumulated throughout
the World Series. Only "open" events in
which all players can participate count in the standings.
Beginning with the 2006 World Series of Poker, the
Main Event and the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. competition
had no effect on the outcome of the winner of the
Player of the Year award.
World Series of Poker Europe
The
World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) is the first
expansion of the World Series of Poker. Since 1970,
the event has occurred every year in Las Vegas. In
September 2007, the first WSOP championship events
outside of Las Vegas, complete with bracelets, were
held. The inaugural WSOPE consisted of three events
held in London from September 6-17, 2007. The main
event, a GBP 10,000 buy-in no-limit hold 'em tournament,
was won by Norwegian online prodigy Annette Obrestad
on the day before her 19th birthday. This made her
the youngest person ever to win a WSOP bracelet, a
record that cannot be broken in the Las Vegas WSOP
under current laws because the minimum legal age for
casino gaming in Nevada is 21. Obrestad could play
in the WSOPE because the minimum age for casino gaming
in the United
Kingdom is 18.
While
no definitive plans have been announced, WSOP Commissioner
Jeffrey Pollack has indicated that in the next one
to three years that other venues may start holding
WSOP events. Two locations that have been mentioned
as possible expansion sites are Egypt
and South
Africa.
Other information
In
2005, a video game based on the tournament was released
for several consoles and the computer. A sequel called
World Series of Poker: Tournament of Champions came
out in 2006.
WSOP
video poker machines now appear at some Harrah's casinos;
the machines are standard video poker machines, but
have a bonus feature which allows a player to play
a modified game of Texas Hold 'em against the machine.
Beginning
in 2007, Harrah's announced the creation of the World
Series of Poker Academy, a poker school aimed at providing
poker players with the skills needed to win a WSOP
Bracelet. The instructors for the Academy include
Phil Hellmuth, Greg Raymer, Scott Fischman and Mark
Seif. Initial academies were launched in Tunica, Indiana
and Las Vegas. (Credit: Wikipedia).
Heading
into the 2008 World Series of Poker (WSOP), the major
change handed down by tournament officials was the
introduction of a 117 day break prior to the start
of the Main Event final table, which occurred in November.
The move was considered by many to be a resounding
success, as television ratings and interest in poker
boomed as a result. Heading into 2009, rebuy tournaments
may become a distant memory.
Poker
News Daily has confirmed a rumor that WSOP officials
are considering doing away with rebuy events for the
2009 tournament series. There were five rebuy contests
held during the 2008 schedule:
Event
#5: $1,000 No Limit Hold’em with Rebuys
Event #18: $5,000 No Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball with Rebuys
Event #28: $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha with Rebuys
Event #34: $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha with Rebuys
Event #44: $1,000 No Limit Hold’em with Rebuys
World
Series of Poker Communications Director Seth Palansky
told Poker News Daily, “For rebuys, we are simply
in discussions on the benefits and drawbacks of having
these events as bracelet events. We like rebuys and
think they are a fun and exciting game for poker players,
but at the same time, we are questioning their place
in the World Series of Poker.”
In
many cases, the rebuy period ends after the first
two levels of play in a tournament. However, players
can often play very loosely during this time and,
if their bankroll allows for it, simply rebuy if they
are eliminated. However, this has raised eyebrows
as to whether a bracelet is warranted for potentially
just having the deepest pockets. For example, during
Event #5, Suk Song re-bought 23 times. In 2006, PokerStars
pro Daniel Negreanu reloaded an amazing 46 times and
added on twice during a rebuy tournament.
In
Event #18, Todd Brunson invested a whopping $140,000.
To put that number in perspective, Brunson would have
had to finish fourth in order to break even; he ultimately
did not make the money. Negreanu invested $85,000
in Event #28. This time, however, his gamble paid
off, as he finished seventh and cashed for $129,000.
In
Event #34, the number of rebuys was up a remarkable
53% in 2009 in comparison to 2008, causing the total
prize pool to balloon by 43%. Layne Flack invested
$33,000 in the tournament, which meant that he needed
to place 12th or better out of 320 entrants in order
to make his money back. Luckily, Flack ended up winning
the entire tournament and taking home $577,000, or
17 times his buy-in, for his sixth WSOP bracelet.
The
$1,000 rebuy tournament first became a part of the
WSOP in 2004. In 2005, two $1,000 No Limit Hold’em
rebuy tournaments were held, a trend that has existed
ever since. One player re-bought 17 times in Event
#44 in 2008, although WSOP officials declined to name
who he or she was. The top 27 players received $18,000
or more.
Palansky
elaborated further, “The bracelet and its prestige
are of paramount importance to us and we want to ensure
that anyone who does win a bracelet does so because
they played the best poker throughout an event.”
In 2007, there were six rebuy events held as part
of the WSOP festivities. In 2006, there were four,
which was one fewer than in 2005. The 2008 WSOP featured
54 bracelet events in total, meaning that rebuys accounted
for roughly 9% of the tournaments. The Main Event
is a $10,000 buy-in freeze out.
WSOP
and Harrah’s officials will likely take into
account views from its Players Advisory Council when
making a decision. The discussion may focus on whether
rebuy tournaments favor deep-pocketed poker players
and whether the merits of having a portion of the
WSOP schedule devoted to rebuys jeopardizes the esteem
of a bracelet.
No
timeline has been set for an announcement one way
or another and the 2009 WSOP schedule has not been
released.