Starting on Friday, May 28th, the 2010 World Series of Poker (WSOP) will kick off from fabulous Las Vegas. Members of the poker community from the four corners of the globe will descend upon Sin City to claim one of 57 bracelets up for grabs. Last year, PocketFivers grabbed 14 of the 57 pieces of hardware at stake for a 25% success rate. The total prize money won nearly topped $40 million on the strength of Michigan PocketFiver Joe jcada99 Cada’s victory in the Main Event for $8.5 million.
Members of the online poker community have been bantering back and forth about a wide variety of topics related to the WSOP. One of the most recent threadscame from Steven dtools22DiTullio, a blogger who inquired, “I'm planning on making a trip out, but my bankroll doesn't really stretch high enough to play in the Series yet. I was wondering if there is anything else running that would be more in the $500 buy-in area that's worth playing while the WSOP is going on.” Events held as part of the Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza and Bellagio Cup will be going on concurrently with the WSOP.
Other PocketFivers were searching for cost-effective ways to enter WSOP events. Take Canada’s slizza420, who asked in a thread in Poker Discussion, “Is playing the Steps on PokerStarsthe best way to go? Do they run a bunch of live feeders at the Rio? I want to play a couple of the smaller events, but I don't like the idea of paying the full buy-in amount.” PokerStars and Full Tilt Pokerare among a host of sites qualifying players for the WSOP. UB.com is holding a 25-Seat Main Event Guarantee on June 6th that comes with a $530 buy-in.
Kicking off on Friday is the $500 Casino Employees No Limit Hold’em tournament (Event #1) and the $50,000 Player’s Championship (Event #2). The latter is the lone $50,000 buy-in tournament on this year’s schedule and takes on an Eight Game format. The five-day contest will likely feature some of the top names in poker enter, including Jason treysfull21Mercier (pictured at left), who told ESPN.com’s “Inside Deal” that he’d likely be tossing his hat into the ring.
On Saturday, a $1,000 No Limit Hold’em event (#3) will begin. Last year, the only open $1,000 buy-in No Limit Hold’em event on the WSOP schedule generated a field of 6,012 players, the largest non-Main Event turnout ever. In fact, it passed the previous mark by over 50%. The open $1,000 buy-in tournaments this year carry two starting days and six will play out.
The other $1,000 No Limit Hold’em tournaments will commence at the Rio on June 5th, June 12th, June 19th, June 26th, and July 1st. The $1,000 Ladies No Limit Hold’em Championship begins on June 11th, while the Seniors Championship starts seven days later.
The Rio Pavilion and Amazon Room will make up the gaming floor this year. The former is the largest room at the Rio at 58,000 square feet. To put that number in perspective, the Amazon Room weighs in at 38,000. The Amazon Room will house tournament restarts, final tables, and several 5:00pm events, meaning that a player’s goal is to make their way into the Amazon Room. The daily bracelet ceremony will take place in the Pavilion.
Four events will play out during the opening weekend of the 2010 WSOP:
Event #1: Casino Employees No Limit Hold’em
Friday, May 28th at 12:00pm PT
$500 buy-in
Event #2: The Player’s Championship
Friday, May 28th at 5:00pm PT
$50,000 buy-in
Event #3: No Limit Hold’em
Saturday, May 29th at 12:00pm PT
$1,000 buy-in
Event #4: Omaha High-Low Split Eight or Better
Sunday, May 30th at 5:00pm PT
$1,500 buy-in
Among those making their way to Las Vegas in the coming days is DoylesRoomBrunson 10 member Amit amak316Makhija (pictured at right), who posted on Twitter on Wednesday, “Flying to Milwaukee and actually caught my flight on time at LAX! If that's not a sign of rungood to come, what is? Leaving for LV on Mon!” Meanwhile, recent Five Star World Poker Classic event winner Randal RandALLinFlowers chirped, “Finishing the last 5.5 hours of the road trip from AZ to LV. #WSOP time weeeeee.”
We’ll have full final table resultsfor members of the online poker community updated throughout the 2010 WSOP. In the meantime, whet your whistle by reviewing how PocketFivers fared during the 2009 WSOP.