One of the most anticipated poker series in the United States poker industry is the World Series of Poker. The WSOP is a series that has taken place for decades, providing several top poker events in a variety of formats. Many players who earn the coveted gold bracelet by winning a WSOP event go on to be professional players, creating a career in the game. So, essentially the WSOP is a big deal. For this season, the officials of the World Series of Poker have announced the new schedule, filled with new events, including three online tournaments.
The 2017 series will begin on May 30th and continue until July 17th. The Rio All Suite Hotel & Casino of Las Vegas will play host to the event again with 74 gold bracelet events on the schedule. Buy-ins will start at $333 and go as high as $111,111, offering affordable events as well as option for high rollers.
The Tournament Director for the WSOP, Jack Effel, commented on the new schedule as he enters his 20th year in the game. Effel stated that the focus of the schedule will continue to focus on two core principles. These principles are to deliver the largest prize pools as well as diversity to provide something for everyone. As far as the 48th edition of the WSOP, the poker series will keep to these core principles and ensure the summer is action-packed at the Rio.
For the most part, the events will have a start time of 11am but on the weekends will start earlier, at 10am. Some will start in the afternoon hours, usually around 3pm on the weekdays and 4pm on the weekends.
For this year’s schedule, the WSOP will be offering three events online as well as eight new tournaments. This will be the most online poker tournaments offered by the WSOP since they began providing online poker bracelet tournaments in 2015. One of the online events on the schedule includes the No Limit Hold’em tournament which has a buy-in of $333 and a guaranteed prize pool of $333,333. The event is scheduled for June 3rd.
One of the new tournaments puts a unique spin on the game of poker. On the 31st of May, the schedule include the $10,000 tag team no limit hold’em tournament. This event will see teams of players, two to four members, paying the buy-in together and sharing chips during the three day event. Players will essentially tag in and out to take on competitors to see who can claim the first place win.
Another unique tournament on the schedule is The Giant. This event has a buy-in of $365 and will run for five consecutive Fridays. Starting on the 9th of June, The Giant will see players meeting up at 7pm to begin the tournament. Players who remain in the competition will come back every Friday to compete until the winner is named.
The Marathon is yet another new tournament added to the schedule, this time with a marathon theme. The event has a buy-in of $2,620 and will feature 26,200 in starting chips. The blind levels will increase every 100 minutes and players will be competing in no limit hold’em format. The tournament will run for a five day time frame.
Another high roller event on the schedule and an online option is the $3,333 WSOP.com online high roller tournament. This tournament begins at 3:33pm sharp on the 1st of July and will have unlimited re-entries.
The WSOP schedule for 2017 truly has something for everyone. Players will find events that are affordable as well as unique to be able to enjoy the action at the Rio or on the virtual felt at the WSOP.com