If you’ve set your sites on a piece of coveted WSOP 2009 wrist decoration, then you’ll likely be interested to know that pre-registration for this year’s series has officially opened. Buy-ins are now being accepted for every one of the 57 bracelet events, along with the Ante Up For Africa charity tournament.
The World Series will run from May 26th to July 25th, featuring a wide variety of tournaments, with buy-ins ranging from $1,000 to $50,000. At the lower end of the market, expect the tables to be chocked full of wide-eyed amateur players hoping to make their own piece of World Series history. Event #4 is a tournament tailored specifically to those players. The “stimulus special” is a $1,000 No Limit Hold ‘em event designed to offer would-be poker stars a shot at WSOP glory. The other $1,000 events are the Ladies No Limit Hold ‘em World Championship and the Seniors No-Limit Hold ‘em World Championship.
In the stratospheric realms of the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event, we can expect to see a field saturated with top name pros. This relatively young tournament is held in high esteem among the game’s most skilled players and is one of poker’s most highly sought after prizes. Another big buy-in event makes its debut this year. In honor of the 40th anniversary of the WSOP, the $40,000 40th Annual No Limit Hold’em tournament is set to start the series in style.
Notable by their absence from this years’ schedule are the rebuy tournaments. Renowned for feats of extreme expenditure, organizers disliked the idea of ‘selling a bracelet’ and opted to remove the events completely. By way of compensation a “Triple Chance” event has been introduced where the buy-in will grant you three stacks to use in any combination, within the first two levels.
Also returning is the set of World Championship events, with the overall number increasing from 8 to 10, compared with last year. Another controversy is the news that, for the second time in WSOP history, the final table of the main event will be delayed until November. On the 15th of July play will end with nine players remaining, not to resume until the 11th of November. The second ‘November Nine’ will complete the tournament over three days, with the final table receiving extensive coverage from ESPN.
A full schedule of events, including satellites can be seen here.