2010 WSOP Schedule

Harrah’s yesterday announced the schedule for next year’s World Series Of Poker and there were a couple of big surprises and interesting omissions.

The festival of poker will begin on May 28th 2010 with the first-ever $50,000 Player’s Championship – the biggest buy-in event to ever kick-off a WSOP. The Player’s Championship is a unique eight-game mixed format covering Limit Hold’em, No-Limit Hold’em, Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 Or Better, Seven Card Razz, Seven Card Stud, Seven Card Stud Hi-Low Split-8 or Better, Pot-Limit Omaha and 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball. In a big decision by the WSOP, this new event will replace the $50k H.O.R.S.E. which came in for a lot of criticism last year after the decision by ESPN not to televise it led to a reduced field size.

Harrah’s have obviously gone to great lengths to placate ESPN this year, with the final table of the Player’s Championship being contested over No-Limit Hold’em only, so as not to confuse the casual poker viewers presumably. With the $50k H.O.R.S.E. being dropped this event will also see the Chip Reese Memorial Trophy awarded to the winner. With such a huge buy-in and the mixed game format favouring the live pros who frequent Bobby’s Room the field is guranteed to be dominated by the world’s most famous players – railbird heaven.

Other interesting announcements include the addition of a $25k Six-Max No-Limit Hold’em event – sure to be popular with the online generation – and an extension of the playing area into the huge Pavillion Ballroom at the Rio, expected to increase table capacity by up to 20%.

The very successful November Nine concept will also return for a third straight year, the Main Event getting started on July 5th.

It’s a bold and exciting schedule from Harrah’s with 57 coveted WSOP bracelets given out in all. Let the countdown begin…