Double Nickels on the Dime

Fifty-five bracelets. Tying last year’s record for the most ever. To be awarded over the span of forty-nine days. (Barring, of course, some surprise announcement regarding that Main Event final table.) Looking at the calendar, it is just about seven weeks until Event No. 1, the World Championship Pot Limit Hold ’em event ($10,000 buy-in), kicks off at noon on Friday, May 30th.

I’ll be arriving in Vegas about a week before, getting there early to help cover the sucker over on PokerNews. Have to say, am starting to get a little distracted from the day-to-day applesauce as I try to envision being there for the whole spectacle . . . .

Spent a little time looking over the schedule yesterday. Looks like if someone wanted to enter all 55 events it would cost that person $231,500 (not counting rebuys). That’s up quite a bit from last year’s total (under $200,000). Of course, that person would have to be a female casino employee aged fifty or older, since three of the events aren’t open to all: Event No. 15, the Ladies No Limit Hold ’em World Championship ($1,000 entry); Event No. 42, the Seniors No Limit Hold ’em World Championship ($1,000 entry); and Event No. 55, the Casino Employees No Limit Hold ’em event ($500 entry).

A few other tidbits . . .

The $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event (No. 45) is back for a third time, again the most expensive buy-in by a long shot. Besides first-place money (which last year for Freddy Deeb was a cool $2,276,832) and the bracelet, this year’s winner will also be receiving the “David ‘Chip’ Reese Award” in honor of the recently-deceased poker great.

This year’s schedule features eight different “World Championship” events with $10,000 buy-ins: Pot Limit Hold ’em (Event No. 1); the Mixed Event, the one I’d like to be called call “S.P.L.E.N.D.O.R.” (No. 8); Stud (No. 14); Heads-Up No Limit Hold ’em (No. 25); Limit Hold ’em (No. 30); Omaha/8 (No. 37); Pot Limit Omaha (No. 50); and No Limit Hold ’em, or the Main Event (No. 54). Last year no events other than the $50K H.O.R.S.E., the $10K World Championship PLO Event, and the Main Event had higher than a $5,000 buy-in.

Buy-ins for the remaining events sort out thusly: seven $5,000 events (w/two rebuys); two $3,000 events, five $2,500 events; six $2,000 events; twenty-one $1,500 events (w/one rebuy); four $1,000 events (w/two rebuys); and the one $500 event for casino employees.

If all of the tournaments follow their scheduled dates, no more than two bracelets will be awarded on any single day. However, there will be several days when as many as six tournaments will be in progress. Starting June 4th, the next three weeks will feature five or six tourneys in action every single day. This ain’t no picnic. The Rio’s gonna be one busy place.

There are thirty-four Hold ’em events: twenty-five No Limit; four Limit; three Pot Limit; and two Limit/No Limit.

There are eight Omaha events: four Pot Limit Omaha & four Omaha/8.

There are four Stud events: two Stud High & two Stud/8.

There are two Deuce-to-Seven Lowball events, one limit (triple draw) and one no limit (single draw).

There is that one Razz event (No. 26, a $1,500 buy-in).

The remaining six events all feature some combination of the above listed games. Three of those are H.O.R.S.E. events. One combines Pot Limit Hold ‘em and Pot Limit Omaha. One combines Omaha/8 and Stud/8. And the other is the “Mixed Event,” i.e., S.P.L.E.N.D.O.R. (Stud, PLO, LHE, Stud/8, NLHE, 2-7 Triple Draw, Omaha/8, and Razz).

Okay, enough trivia. Except for anyone who wants to tell me from where I got the post title. Extra points for identifying the additional reference appearing somewhere else in the above.