With the 2014 edition of the World Series of Poker on the immediate horizon, tournament director Ty Stewart briefed media this week on poker’s most prestigious event, which this year will run from May 27 to July 14 in Las Vegas.
Excitement is building as more professionals lay down the $1 million buy-in to the charity-oriented Big One for One Drop competition, which Stewart is confident will reach its cap of 56 players, giving the winner around $20 million.
With Nevada intrastate online poker now well established, players at this year’s WSOP will be able to fill in their spare time with a few hands online, hopefully boosting online traffic to the various sites as thousands of visitors converge on Las Vegas for the WSOP action.
WSOP.com is leveraging the live tournament interest by offering a total of 200 main event seats, one hundred of which have already been won in satellites.
Stewart also highlighted the fact that this year’s $10,000 buy-in Main Event will carry a $10 million first prize guarantee, and that WSOP will run Open-Face Chinese poker cash games.
This year’s WSOP will feature 65 distinct gold bracelet events and might include an online hybrid-live competition. Asked about the possibility of such an event, Stewart said it had been considered but nothing has yet been decided…however he commented: “The WSOP is prone to surprise announcements!”
Events that have traditionally started at 5pm will see a small change, starting an hour earlier in most cases to accommodate long playing hours that often stretch into the following day.
Would be participants will be able to register as late as six hours before the start of most competitions.
To cater for online players relaxing with some action on the internet websites, a “grind room” will be set up in the Pavilion Room at Rio. Players will also be permitted to enjoy a little online action on their mobile devices at the table, but only if it does not interrupt or impede the live action at the table.