WSOP Announces Changes to 2012 Schedule
- by Josef Rantamaki
The World Series of Poker has announced several changes to its 2012 Series, which will run from 27th May to 16th July and includes 61 events.
Contrary to rumours, the Series will remain at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, where a further 92 tables will be added to the Brasilia Ballroom. The WSOP believes 470 tables will be in use, which is up on the record of 378 set last year.
The Main Event will be three days shorter than previous years, and will run from 7th July to 16th July. Due to the US Presidential election, held on the first Tuesday in November, the 2012 WSOP Main Event final table will be played a week earlier than usual. It will be held in two stages, nine players will play down to two on 28th October with heads up play resuming on 30th October.
A new event has been introduced for 1st July, The Big One for One Drop. It will be the largest event ever with a $1 million buy-in and has been championed by Guy Laliberté, founder of the One Drop Charity and owner of Cirque Du Soleil. Each buy- in is intended to raise $111,111 for the charity, and initially the event was only going to award a gold bracelet if 22 entrants signed up. This figure has already been met and it includes players such as Laliberté, Bobby Baldwin, Andy Beal, Tom Dwan, and Jonathan Duhamel.
There will be four other bracelet events. Event 3 is a $3,000 heads-up no limit hold’em/pot-limit Omaha event, with a cap of 512 players, who will alternate between the two games at each 20-minute level. Event 6 is a mix-max no limit hold’em with a $5,000 buy-in, while Event 28 will inaugurate fourhanded no-limit hold’em tables with a buy-in of $2,500. Finally Event 49 will be a $1,500 buy-in ante only no-limit hold’em.
WSOP will also offer its first ever re-entry tournament. Event 9 is a $1,500 NoLimit Hold’em tournament. If players are knocked out on the first day, Saturday, they can re-enter on Sunday.