The excitement and anticipation attending the big-time nature of
the World Series of Poker in Vegas is already almost tangible as the
media machine behind poker's most globally watched event goes up a
gear with the tournament date now visible on the horizon.
Last year's WSOP recorded the most successful run in its history with
almost 30,000 players participating in 45 events for a record total
prize pool of more than $103 million.
In the $10 000 buy-in World Championship No-limit Texas Hold'em event,
a record 5 619 players entered with all nine players at the final
table winning at least $1 million.
But you ain't seen nothing yet - the 2006 series will be better and
bigger, say official sources.
Harrah's Entertainment executives are projecting that some 41 000
participants will enter this year's 45-event competition. The world
championship event is likely to draw a small army of more than 8 000
players who will pay, or be sponsored at $10 000 an entry. Due to
the sheer size of the field, the opening round will be staggered over
four days while the second round will take place over two days, paring
down to 1 400 players.
While the final two days of the 2005 World Series of Poker championship
were held at Binion's, home to the World Series during its first 35
years, the 37th World Series of Poker will not leave its permanent
location at the Rio.
"Thank God. If we have to pull another all-nighter, at least
it will be at the Rio," said Howard Greenbaum, Harrah's vice
president of specialty games for the Las Vegas region. Last year's
final table took almost 14 hours to complete with competition ending
about 6:30 in the morning.
Greenbaum said it was a logistical nightmare moving the gaming operation
and television production equipment for the final event.
With everything now taking place at the Rio, Greenbaum said some changes
were made to the temporary poker room inside the Rio's spacious convention
center.
The number of poker tables has increased to 208. Two additional specially
equipped final tables, which include cameras that reveal a player's
hole cards to a television audience, have been included.
"We'll have a lot of carry-over action going on and this will
allow us to run two events at the same time," Greenbaum said.
The entry process has been streamlined, Greenbaum said, and the number
of cashier windows has tripled to 15.
Other new aspects include a special break room for dealers, a designated
smoking area, expanded menu options in the dining facility and, through
the use of trailer-sized port-a-toilets, increased restroom facilities.
Based on the expected number of entries, the world champion could
take home a top prize of $12.5 million, Greenbaum said, easily eclipsing
last year's record $7.5 million win by Australian Joseph Hachem.
With the growth of Internet poker and entrants qualifying from the
online poker community, the last three world poker champions have
been relative unknowns.
One special event that was added at the request of the long-time poker
community was HORSE, a three-day challenge where players compete in
five different poker games; hold'em, Omaha, razz, seven card stud,
and seven card stud high-low split/eight or better for low. Buy-in
for the event is $50 000 and Greenbaum only expects about 100 players
to compete.