Back when plans for the 2008 WSOP Europe were being announced there was plenty of discussion about holding the event in multiple venues as has been done in the past. And there were plenty of people who thought that this was a crazy and ridiculous idea. Many thought that it should be modeled after the WSOP and be held in a single location.
Well apparently Harah’s and the WSOP were listening as they have decided to hold all of the WSOPE events in one spot. The spot that they have chosen is the Casino at the Empire in London’s world famous Leicester Square.
Last year the events were held in three separate venues the Casino at the Empire, Sportsman, Fifty which were all located in London. However, they were spread out too much across the city which meant that players had to walk or get taxis to different tournaments making it a nuisance.
The WSOP’s marketing director in Ty Stewart weighed in on the change citing that it will help players get to events quicker and easier and it will also help media out too.
He said, “We have enhanced the schedule to provide more variety and game play, greatly broadened the worldwide television exposure and have brought the event under one roof to better the player experience for this prestigious and premiere event.”
Besides the venue change, there was also other news for the 2008 WSOPE in that many star players will be in attendance this year. Some of them include Daniel Negreanu, Chris Ferguson, Jennifer Harman, and Phil Hellmuth.
Surprisingly a few of the November Nine players will be there too in David “Chino” Rheem, Peter Eastgate, and Ivan Demidov. This is interesting since the majority of the players were predicted to not participate so they could get ready for the WSOP Main Event in November.