The World Series of Poker offered up an early Christmas present for poker players this year with the release of the core dates of the 2019 WSOP summer series.
It has been anticipated that the WSOP would have big plans for the coming year, as it will represent the 50th running of the series. There will be one signature tournament of the 50th Annual World Series of Poker, but there will also be special events held throughout the summer, including a gala and awards evening on June 29.
While the complete schedule won’t be revealed until sometime in the first quarter of 2019, as has happened in recent years, the beginning and ending dates are set, as are some key tournament dates.
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2019 WSOP
The Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas will once again host the summer festivities, which will begin on May 28 and conclude on July 16, 2019.
To kick off the action and celebrate the 50th anniversary of the WSOP, the series will open with a unique event called the Big 50. It will be a $500 buy-in NLHE tournament with a $5 million prize pool guarantee, of which $1 million will go to the winner. Starting on May 30 and offering four days of starting flights, players will be able to enter once per flight. The initial entry for each player is rake-free, but reentries will include rake.
The Millionaire Maker will return in 2019 and start on June 7 with two starting days and flights. The $1,500 buy-in NLHE event will guarantee at least $1 million of its prize pool to the winner.
Seniors aged 50 and over will find their signature event beginning on June 13 with a $1K buy-in.
A Double Stack NLHE event will offer players a $1K buy-in option with two starting flights on June 14-15, one reentry per flight, and double the standard 20K starting stacks. And the Monster Stack NLHE event will return with its $1,500 buy-in and 50K starting stacks, and while there will be two starting days on June 21 and 22, no reentries will be allowed.
The Crazy Eights NLHE event will also be back on the schedule, starting on June 28 and hosting three starting days with unlimited reentries. Double starting stacks will accompany each buy-in of only $888, and the winner will be promised $888,888.
The series will ultimate wrap with the NLHE Main Event World Championship, which requires a $10K buy-in and garners each player 60K chips. The signature event will play out from July 3-16, the first three days of which will be starting flights. No reentries will be allowed, but there will be two-hour levels with the action getting underway each day at noon.
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Non-Bracelet Action
As always, the entirety of the Rio Convention Center will be reserved for the WSOP, complete with 500 poker tables throughout the 100K square feet of rooms.
Some of that space will be reserved for daily tournaments, which will begin at $70. There will also be cash games and single-table satellites beginning on May 28 and continuing on a 24-hour-per-day basis throughout the seven weeks.
Aimed at Setting Records
Of course, the WSOP would like to set new records for its 50th anniversary.
Looking back at last year’s WSOP, there were 78 events that garnered 123,865 entries and generated $266,889,193 in prize money.
“We’re excited to commence our golden event,” said WSOP Executive Director Ty Stewart. “We expect our opening weekend Big 50 event to be one of the largest in our history, and certainly one of the best value tournaments ever offered. This is part of our concerted plans to make the 2019 WSOP a better value all-around.”
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