The World Series of Poker’s (WSOP) 50th annual tournament, scheduled from May 28 to July 16, 2019, includes a 20-event schedule of buy-ins priced $10,000 and higher.
The 2019 schedule will offer its first-ever “Short Deck” No-Limit Hold’em event, priced at a buy-in of $10,000 and a $50,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em tournament, both structured as four day events.
The 50th running of the WSOP Main Event is expected to play out from July 3-16, 2019. Players will again have three different starting flights to choose from.
“New wrinkles this year include an increased starting stack of 60,000 chips, the utilization of the Big Blind Ante format, and the ability for players to buy into the event as late as the start of play on Day 2 (either July 6 or July 7 at 12 noon),” a press statement reads. The event remains a freeze out format in which players may only enter once.
“We are proud to be the only tournament series offering such a wide variety of poker variants,” WSOP Vice President Jack Effel, said. “Players at this buy-in level should continue to expect terrific structures, with registration open until Day 2 in most cases and plenty of play to determine the champion in each discipline.”
A record 123,865 entries participated in the 2018 WSOP, creating a 49-year high of $266,889,193 in prize money. The average WSOP gold bracelet event in 2018 had a $3,421,656 prize pool with $655,337 going to the winner.
The 2018 WSOP featured huge field sizes once again in signature events, with the Main Event (7,874), Millionaire Maker (7,361), Monster Stack (6,260), Crazy Eights (8,598), Seniors Championship (5,918) and Colossus (13,070) combining to attract an impressive 49,081 entries.
The majority of these signature events return in 2019, with the addition of a new opening weekend high value event to help usher in the 50th running of the WSOP – dubbed the ‘Big 50’.