2010 WSOP Schedule Announced

The 2010 World Series of Poker schedule has arrived. A little earlier than last time around, when we didn’t get the full slate of tourneys until late January. However, the year before that, the schedule for the 2008 WSOP did come about this time, if I recall (i.e., mid-December).

Sheesh, 2010. A little too science-fictiony, ain’t it? So tell me, are you planning to play in the WSOP this year? Will 2010 be the year you make contact?

Once again we’re looking at 57 bracelet events, matching last year’s record total. Friday, May 28th is the day everything gets started with the Casino Employees $500 No-Limit Hold’em event (No. 1) cranking up at noon. Then at 5:00 p.m that afternoon comes what is being called “The Player’s Championship,” a $50,000 buy-in event featuring the eight-game mix we’ve seen employed the last couple of years (i.e., Limit Hold’em, Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better, Seven Card Razz, Seven Card Stud, Seven Card Stud Hi-Low Split-8 or Better, No-Limit Hold'em, Pot-Limit Omaha, and 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball).

This “Player’s Championship” -- I can already tell I’m gonna start getting frustrated with that apostrophe being on the wrong side of the “s” -- is the new version of the $50K H.O.R.S.E. event that has been part of the WSOP since 2006, with the Chip Reese Memorial Trophy going to the winner.

Curious, I suppose, to see the WSOP start things off once more with a high-dollar event (the most expensive of the 57). Last year many were critical of the decision to have that $40K NLHE event come at the beginning of the Series as it was thought it may have a negative impact on players’ ability to participate in subsequent events. However, only 201 entered that $40K event, and one would assume the turnout for this eight-game version (a.k.a., S.P.L.E.N.D.O.R.) will be substantially less, as the highest the $50K H.O.R.S.E. ever drew was 148, and only 95 entered last year.

Later in the Series will come a $25,000 buy-in Six-Handed No-Limit Hold’em event (Event No. 52) which should get a lot of attention, I’d imagine.

Also, as was the case last year, there will also be ten different $10,000 buy-in “Championship” events this time around. I’m seeing they aren’t calling them “World” championships on this schedule sheet as in past years. (I guess they already call it the World Series of Poker.) Those ten events will be in Seven-Card Stud (Event No. 10), Seven Card Stud Hi-Low Split-8 or Better (Event No. 15), 2-7 Draw Lowball (No-Limit) (Event No. 19), Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better (Event No. 25), Limit Hold’em (Event No. 29), Heads-Up No-Limit Hold’em (with a 256-player cap) (Event No. 35), Pot-Limit Hold’em (Event No. 38), H.O.R.S.E. (Event No. 43), Pot-Limit Omaha (Event No. 55), and, of course, No-Limit Hold’em (a.k.a. the Main Event) (Event No. 57).

There are also five different $5,000 buy-in events, meaning that out of 57 bracelet events a little less than a third (17) will cost $5,000 or more to play.

On the other end of the bankroll spectrum, the WSOP has added a clutch of $1,000 buy-in events this time around. In addition to the Ladies Event (No. 22) and the Seniors Event (No. 34), there will be six different $1,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em events. I guess we’ll call those the Stimulus Not-So-Specials, since they’ll be coming about once per week throughout the WSOP. There are 19 different $1,500 buy-in events as well, meaning about half of the WSOP is made up of these low-end events.

Those low buy-in events will be stimulating the house, too, as the juice is a whopping 10% for all events with a buy-in of $1,500 or less (up a touch from the 9% held from those events last year.)

If you decided you wanted to enter all 57 events -- in which case you’d necessarily be a female casino employee aged 50 or older -- it would cost you a total of $267,500.

Rebuys are still out, although again there’s one of those “Triple Chance” events that sorta kinda pretends to be like a rebuy tourney. And apparently a number of these Omaha events have some add-ons as part of the deal (will have to investigate further). I’m counting 22 non-hold’em events overall (including the $2,500 buy-in Pot-Limit Hold’em/Pot-Limit Omaha Event No. 33), down just a tad from the 24 non-hold’em events we saw in 2009.

All in all, the 2010 WSOP schedule looks a lot like the 2009 one. I haven’t really looked at the structure sheets (also released yesterday), but it appears the plan is again to go with “triple stacks” meaning players will begin with three times the buy-in in chips, and so I’m going to assume the structures haven’t changed much (or at all) from last year’s events.

Click here for the full schedule, including links to the structures and registration forms, too. Hard to believe the sucker is less than five months from now. Still seems like 2010 shouldn’t be so close. Sounds too far away, like Jupiter or something.