Dream Team Poker has announced that they will be hosting their second “open” event, this time on poker’s biggest stage.  The event will take place while the Main Event is going on at the World Series of Poker, on July 12th and 13th.  The Rio will host the tournament, which is sure to attract plenty of attention from folks who have been knocked out of the Main Event or are there to rail some of the great poker being played.

Dream Team Poker’s two previous events were great successes for the growing company.  The first, held in November last year, was an invitation only event and the second event, held in March, was Dream Team’s first “open” event, where anyone who could form a team could enter.  The open tournament was held at Caesar’s Palace and attracted 148 teams.  At 3 players per team that was 444 players vying for a chance at the money, either as an individual winner or as part of a winning team.

Dream Team’s unique structure rewards individual winners, much like a standard tournament.  However, where they differ is that each team will receive points based on the team member’s finishing places.  The top two players on each team receive a score and the lowest score wins an additional prize.  This creates the opportunity for some creative strategy to be involved in the game.  For instance, some teams will all play their normal games, while others may assign one team member to play a little wild and aggressive, in hopes of building up a large stack early on.  Either way, there is definitely more interest in what is going on, even after players are eliminated.  They want to stick around and support their teammates and even if they finished out of the money, there is often still a chance to get paid.

The last tournament that Dream Team hosted garnered quite a bit of media attention, but this tournament should really put Dream Team Poker on the map.  There will be so many players, fans, and poker media still at the Rio that it would be hard for the team event not to get noticed.  It’s also great for the WSOP organizers because it gives yet one more thing that can keep players in Vegas a little longer, even if they don’t make it far during the Main Event.