Fasten your seat belts and tune in to Las Vegas as the 47th edition of the World Series of Poker kicks off today (Tuesday May 31) at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino.
With 69 events, the festival of poker runs through July 18, with the celebrated Main Event scheduled for a July 9 start and expected to again attract thousands of entrants.
The main event will play down to the final nine players before adjourning as usual until late October, when the finalists will reconvene in a multi-million dollar NLHE grand finale.
Last year’s winner, Joe McKeehen claimed the winner’s gold bracelet and $7.68 million, and the tournament overall pulled in 103,512 entries, generating total prize pools of more than $210 million.
Online poker fans are again able to compete online in satellite contests for seats at the events, with 888Poker already announcing that it has budgeted to award 55 WSOP seats in the Spin Your Way to Vegas promo, along with 5 WSOP Main Event packages worth $12,500 and 50 Crazy Eights packages valued at $3,000. As the official sponsor of this year’s WSOP the online poker provider has committed to over $200,000 in prizes.