2014 World Series of Poker Details Announced
WSOP officials have announced a handful of details for the 2014 World Series of Poker, which will make its tenth consecutive annual appearance next summer at the Rio All Suites Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.
The 2014 WSOP will open on May 27th with the expected beginning of live registration, immediately followed by the startup of cash games and satellite tourneys (usually single-table SNGs), always a hallmark of any WSOP. SNGs will start as low as $75 a seat. The series will run for 49 consecutive days, a full seven weeks of non-stop poker action, culminating with the determination of next fall’s Main Event “November Nine” on Monday, July 14th.
While the exact schedule has not been released, it is likely that actual event play will begin on May 28th with the traditional $500 Casino Employees, one of three non-open tourneys (Seniors, Ladies) usually present on the annual WSOP slate.
WSOP and Caesars officials have announced a few of the events which have already been locked into place:
An opening weekend “Millionaire Maker” event. This event returns with a $1,000 buy-in and a guaranteed $1,000,000 first-place prize, part of a concerted effort by WSOP officials to draw big crowds to the earliest parts of the WSOP.
Contrary to a piece published this morning at pokerfuse, this event, which kicks off on Saturday, May 31, is not the opening event of the 2014 WSOP. Several events will precede it, including the casino employee’s event and, quite probably, a different series-opening $1,000 “donkament” tourney. The 2014 Millionaire Maker will likely end up being Event #7 or #8 on the finalized series slate, which is due out in mid- to late January.
More “Drops” in the Charity Bucket. In 2012, we had the Big One for One Drop charity event, with a $1,111,111 buy-in, and a record-setting $18 million win by Antonio Esfandiari. Last year, it was the Little One for One Drop event, a $1,000 rebuy affair. In 2014, to no one’s surprise, the WSOP slate will feature both.
The twin “Drop” events, both of which will benefit the clean-water-awareness charity led by Cirque du Soleil founder and high-stakes-poker dilettante Guy Laliberte, have also been given solid dates. The Big One tourney gets underway on Sunday, June 29th and will likely run for four days; the field will be capped at 56 players.
The Little One tourney will have two starting dates, July 3rd and July 4th (Wednesday and Thursday). Both days will allow re-buys through the first four levels, though whether Wednesday’s bustouts will be able to re-enter again from scratch on Thursday has yet to be clarified. Last year, 4,756 players participated, and WSOP notes that it is the last no-limit tourney before the Main Event. In 2013, a fixed-limit, triple-draw lowball event was the last event before the Main, and something similar is likely in store this time around.
Main Event details. The pre-final table of the 2014 World Series of Poker Main Event, is scheduled to run for 10 full days, July 5th – 14th, 2014. The tourney will feature three separate starting days — July 5th, 6th and 7th — with the field combined in some fashion on a later day. As is traditional, it will feature a $10,000 buy-in, and no re-entries will be allowed.
Other Notes. Online qualifying is already available for the 2014 WSOP within the United States on the WSOP.com sites operating in Nevada and New Jersey. (The WSOP does not have an operating agreement with the Delaware Lottery, overseers of online poker action in the third US state where the game is formally regulated and available.
The total event slate has yet to be released, but with the very slight expansion in the length of the series for 2014, the total bracelet count is expected to be between 63 and 65.
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