Las Vegas has long been referred to as the Entertainment Capital of the World, the gathering point for casino players from around the United States and the rest of the world. And every year at approximately the same time, the city becomes the gathering place for the world’s most renowned poker players as well as for enthusiasts aspiring to turn into the next big names on the international poker scene. For those wondering, every year, Las Vegas plays host to the World Series of Poker or the most popular and prestigious poker series in the world. This year, the major and always highly anticipated festival will take place from May 31-July 18 and will feature a number of tournaments and tons of excitements for participants and fans alike.
As per usual, Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino will be the arena for the upcoming battles. This year’s edition of the WSOP will feature as many as 69 events, with all those promising entries the chance to win substantial amounts of money and the special WSOP gold bracelets. Generally speaking, the shiny gold piece has long been considered one of the most coveted non-monetary prizes a player could dream of.
As a response to numerous complaints and suggestions by players and industry personalities, the WSOP has presented a number of changes to take effect as of this year’s edition of the festival. These include a new format for distribution of prize money as well as the addition of new types of tournaments.
During the 46th Annual WSOP, most of the gold bracelet events will pay out 15% of the overall field, representing a 50% increase from the former Series standard. What is more, minimum payouts will amount to one-and-a-half times a given event’s buy-in fee. As a result, the bubble will probably burst on Day 1 of some of the tournaments to take place within the WSOP schedule.
As mentioned above, there will be 69 events to be held as part of this year’s WSOP. And apart from the $10,000 Main Event, which quite understandably always draws the most attention, the second edition of the $565 Colossus No-Limit Hold’em is yet another highly anticipated tournament.
The event debuted during the 2015 edition of the Series and proved to be a major success. It broke the record for the biggest ever live poker tournament with a massive field of 22,374 entries, of which 14,284 unique ones. Eventually, it was Lance ‘Cord’ Garcia who emerged victorious, scooping his first WSOP-related gold piece and $638,880 in prize money.
The prize pool of last year’s Colossus totaled $11,187,000. Many voiced complaints that despite the large prize pool, the winner collected a relatively insignificant first-place prize. Organizers have promised that things will be a bit different this year. For instance, instead of a guaranteed prize pool of $5 million, the tournament will kick off with a guaranteed $7 million prize pool. In addition, the winner will take home the amount of $1 million and a gold bracelet, of course.
The Colossus II, as dubbed in the official 2016 WSOP schedule, will kick off on June 2 and will run within the span of six days, with six starting flights featured over three days. Here it is important to note that the money bubble will not burst on Day 2 of the event. To be more precise, players from all starting flights will reach the money within their respective flights.
As every year, the 47th Annual WSOP will, too, include new tournament formats. There will be 8 new events during this year’s edition of the Series and here they are:
Event #4: $1,000 Top Up Turbo No-Limit Hold’em – the tournament will be played as a live circuit one, but entries will be able to top up their stack by playing online on the WSOP official website.
Event #12: $565 Pot-Limit Omaha – the event features the lowest buy-in for that particular poker variant
Event #23: $2,000 No-Limit Hold’em
Event #40: $2,500 Mixed Triple Draw Lawball – a tournament that features A-5, 2-7, and Badugi
Event #45: $1,500 Mixed No-Limit Hold’em/Pot-Limit Omaha
Event #53: $1,500 Mixed Pot-Limit Omaha-8/Omaha-8/Big O
Event #54: $888 Crazy Eights Eight-Handed No-Limit Hold’em – a multiple starting flight tournament with a guaranteed $888,888 first-place prize
Event #61: $1,000 Tag Team No-Limit Hold’em – an event allowing 2-4 person teams
It is interesting to note that the $10,000 Main Event will not be the last one on the schedule of the 2016 WSOP. This year, the spot was reserved for the $1,000 +111 Little One for ONE DROP tournament, a charity event aimed at contributing funds to the ONE DROP organization. As for the $10,000 Championship, it will be Event #68 and will kick off on July 9.
