BATTLE FOR THE BRACELETS BEGINS!

2008 WSOPIn my first part of this series I told you about the 39th WSOP important news, concerning the decisions for this up coming year. As well I mentioned that I would then provide a breakdown review event by event. However, now that I have started to do this event by event breakdown, I have realized that it will be better to do it in 8 – 10 event blocks, to make it in 2 parts will be simply to long to read, so enjoy.

As I mentioned earlier the WSOP Poker room will open to the public on May 28th 2008. This will be for Satellites, Cash Games, and for players to Pre-Register for Events. The WSOP will start on Friday May 30th 2008 with a World Championship Event for Pot-Limit Hold’em, and carry though Wednesday July 16th 2008 being the Final Table of the Main Event for No-Limit Hold’em.

WSOP Event #1 World Championship Pot-Limit Hold’em Friday May 30th 12pm
Event #1 is the first $10,000 buy-in event; it will attract typically the Pro players as the average player will only put up the 10K for the main event. It will be a 3 day event, and you can expect somewhere in the range of 300 – 400 entrants with an approximate prize pool of $3,500,000. The first place prize money should be around $850,000.

WSOP Event #2 No-Limit Hold’em Saturday May 31st 12pm
This is the first $1,500 buy-in event and is expected to have the second largest field of the tournament. This tournament is as I dub it “The Poor man’s Main Event”. It will be a 4 day event, with a Day 1A and a Day 1B. The field will be in the 3,000 player neighborhood. The prize pool will be approximately $4,500,000, and a first place payout in excess of $650,000. Thus making it the best bang for your buck event.

WSOP Event #3 Pot-Limit Hold’em Monday June 2nd 12pm
This is the second $1,500 buy-in event as well as the second Pot Limit Hold’em event. As I’m sure many of you are unaware outside of the North America Pot Limit is the betting format of choice. This event can expect a field of 650 – 800 players and a prize pool in the range of $900,000 – $1,250,000. Last year ESPN covered the event, I think this year however that probably will not happen as ESPN will likely be covering Event #1 and #2. First place will be looking at a pay check of around $230,000 – $300,000, and it will run over 3 days.

WSOP Event #4 Mixed Hold’em (Limit/No-Limit) Monday June 2nd 5pm
This is a neat event as players will be switching from Limit to No-Limit every level. Last year this event opened the WSOP and was a World Championship Event. My belief is due to a later event the title of World Championship has been dropped, but the buy-in remains the same at a cool $5,000. This will be another event that will attract primarily the Pro’s. You should expect a field of as few as 300 up to as many as 500, this will be caused due to many of the Pro’s playing event #1 and the likelihood many of them will look to play event

WSOP #5. I was at the WSOP during this event last year, and one of the things I noticed then was that the blinds for the Limit portion were so low that not much happened during these time blocks. I hope for this year that the blind structure will be adjusted. The prize pool will likely be in the $2,000,000 range, and a first prize of around $500,000. This Event was also covered by ESPN last year but will likely get the cut this time around.

WSOP Event #5 No-Limit Hold’em w/Re-buys Tuesday June 3rd 12pm
This is the first event that will allow players to re-buy once they have been relieved of all their chips. Due to the re-buy nature these types of events usually have a lower buy-in. The buy-in for event #5 will be $1,000 the lowest of any of the open events (Event open to anyone and everyone). The Pro’s are quite often attracted to these events due to the simple nature that prize pool swells with re-buys. The field will be approximately 800 – 1,000. Last year this same event saw 814 people enter and from those 814 people there were 1,814 re-buys/add-on. That is better the 3 entries for every person (1 initial buy in and 2 re-buys/add-on). The prize pool for this event will be approximately $2,600,000 – $2,800,000 with a first prize of around $600,000. This event received ESPN coverage last year and likely will be again; this will also be a 3 day tournament.

WSOP Event #6 Omaha Hi-Low Split 8 or Better Tuesday June 3rd 5pm
This is the first of the non Hold’em events in the 39th WSOP. This event is a limit format event, the buy-in is $1,500 thus making it available to the vast majority of players, and will be played over 3 days. The event should draw similar numbers to last year, and come in at around 700 participants. Creating a prize pool of nearly $1,000,000, and should see first place taking home around $250,000. This event will draw a primarily European crowd as Omaha 8 is a very popular game in European Card Rooms.

WSOP Event #7 No-Limit Hold’em Wednesday June 4th 12pm
This is the 3rd No-limit event, it will have a slightly higher buy-in at $2,000 which will create a smaller field then event #2, but should still be in the 1,700 – 2,000 entrant range. And pack a prize pool of just over $3,000,000 leaving first place with around $400,000. The event will be played over 3 days and will most likely be an event covered by WSOP Live, which is the WSOP’s online live feed which is available all series long for a nominal fee.

WSOP Event #8 World Championship Mixed Event Wednesday June 4th 5pm
This event is causing a bit of buzz in the poker world as it is truly going to test a player to an even greater extent then H.O.R.S.E. or S.H.O.E. could ever begin to. I for one wished a giant bag of fifties would fall in my lap so I could play. Event #8 is a true mixed format tournament as the players will play 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 (Hi only), 7-2 Triple Draw Lowball. I would care to guess that this event appears to have been designed to truly test a player through nearly every form of the game. It will be filled to a great extent with Pro players as few others are able to afford the buy-in, as well as have the skill sets to play all the games. The buy-in is $10,000 and it will be played over 3 days. This event will likely be similar to the H.O.R.S.E. event, in that it will bring in a small field of around 200. And create a prize pool in the $2,000,000 range. First place should expect to see around $700,000. The only thing I don’t like about this event is that there is a great potential for most of the action to occur only in the No-Limit Hold’em and Pot-Limit Omaha sections as it is likely the blinds for the limit games will not be set up to provide tournament changing action but hopefully I’m wrong.

With that I will conclude the first part of my WSOP Event Break Down. I’ll leave you to ponder if the first week of action at the Rio Hotel will likely be the week when you are there! Or will it have to be in the week’s to come. Either way good luck to all who dream of wearing the famous gold bracelet!!