WSOP 2019 schedule announced

Just dropped 10 minutes ago:

The 2019 WSOP will take place from May 28 through July 16.

The full schedule has NOT been announced, but some major events have.

There is a new RAKE FREE event for 2019 only called "The Big 50", which takes place on May 30. It has a $500 buyin, 50,000 starting chips, and zero rake. It is not clear if anything will be taken out for the dealers/staff, or if players are expected to do that after they cash. "The Big 50" is in honor of the 50th WSOP, which will take place in 2019 (the first one was 1970). $5 million is guaranteed in the prize pool, and $1m to the winner. This means they are expecting at least 10,000 entres!

Here are the events announced thus far, listed by STARTING DATE (some have multiple flights, which is why I am listing some date ranges below):

May 30-June 2 $500 Big 50 Rake Free NL Holdem ($5m guarantee)
June 7-8 $1500 Millionaire Maker NL Holdem
June 13 $1000 Seniors NL Holdem (age 50+ only)
June 14-15 $1000 Double Stack NL Holdem
June 21-22 $1500 Monster Stack NL Holdem
June 28-30 $888 Crazy Eights 8-handed NL Holdem ($888,888 to winner)
July 3-5 $10,000 NL Holdem Main Event


Here's one major change for 2018: The number of starting chips will be vastly increased for many events. In addition to the Big 50 having 50k starting chips, the Milionaire Maker will have 25k, the Seniors will have 20k, the Double Stack will have 40k, the Monster Stack will have 50k, the Crazy Eights will have 40k, and the Main Event will have 60k.

In 2018, aside from a few special events, the standard was to start with 5x the starting chips compared to the buyin. This meant that standard $1k events started with just 5k chips, and standard $1500 events started with 7500.

Since the "double stack" event is $1k buyin and starts with 40k, and since the Seniors starts with 20k for the same $1k buyin, I am assuming that they will be giving 20k chips for normal $1k events.

Since Millionaire Maker starts with 25k, I'm assuming most $1500 events will start with that, as well.

Befre you get too excited about the large stacks, keep in mind that the blinds are going to be adjusted much bigger, so it's unclear how much more play (if any) we will get.

If you want to book the Rio now, use code WSOP9 to get some additional money off.

An important note regarding the Big 50, the FIRST entry is rake-free. All $500 of the first entry goes into the prize pool, re-entries will have the standard rake, whatever that happens to be. There are 4 opening flights with 1 re-entry/flight.

Consider it the Colossus replacement, even if the Colossus returns in 2019.

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Originally Posted by Kevmath

An important note regarding the Big 50, the FIRST entry is rake-free. There are 4 opening flights with 1 re-entry/flight.

Consider it the Colossus replacement.

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This is a very smart idea, allow the more recreational/fun players buy-in rake free while juicing the subsequent buy-ins of usually the more "pro" oriented, and/or wealthy player.

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Originally Posted by Kevmath

An important note regarding the Big 50, the FIRST entry is rake-free. All $500 of the first entry goes into the prize pool, re-entries will have the standard rake, whatever that happens to be. There are 4 opening flights with 1 re-entry/flight.

Consider it the Colossus replacement, even if the Colossus returns in 2019.

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Interesting.

So only the first entry is rake-free? How much are other entries?

And is it first entry per FLIGHT is rake-free, or just 1 entry total is rake free?

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Du4SMhFXcAIniOO.jpg:large

“Before you get too excited about the large stacks, keep in mind that the blinds are going to be adjusted much bigger, so it's unclear how much more play (if any) we will get.”
:this
Still can’t wait for June though. Gotta take down that senior title before I get too old!

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Originally Posted by Jayjami

Still can’t wait for June though. Gotta take down that senior title before I get too old!

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You have three more years to try for it before I enter the field and bust you.

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Originally Posted by Dan Druff

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kevmath

An important note regarding the Big 50, the FIRST entry is rake-free. All $500 of the first entry goes into the prize pool, re-entries will have the standard rake, whatever that happens to be. There are 4 opening flights with 1 re-entry/flight.

Consider it the Colossus replacement, even if the Colossus returns in 2019.

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Interesting.

So only the first entry is rake-free? How much are other entries?

And is it first entry per FLIGHT is rake-free, or just 1 entry total is rake free?

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Quoting from the press release:

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The Big 50 is a must play event for poker players. To celebrate our 50th, the WSOP is making everyone’s initial entry into this event rake-free. All $500 of the entry will go entirely to the prizepool. (Anyone who re-enters pays the normal rake, including re-entries into another flight). The Big 50 features four starting flights (Thursday-Sunday am) where players begin play with a whopping 50,000 in chips and play 12, 50-minute levels on Day 1. The WSOP has a $5 million prize pool guarantee, as well as ensuring the winner claims $1 million for the Big 50.

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I am all for starting with a good amount of chips with a GOOD structure. I think for a $1500 buy in at the 2018 structure starting with only 7500 chips like they did last year is not good at all. Once again if you used the 2018 structure on a $1500 buy in I think 20k-25k SS is just right. You can bet this year they will be starting at 100-200 and blinds will almost double every level. There is a shit storm coming.

Might have to finally play some this year.. That $500 no rake sounds too tempting but Im willing to bet its gonna be a donkfest at least early on.. People shoving with shit willing to risk 4-6 bullets on this tournament..

13 more events announced.

http://www.wsop.com/news/2019/Jan/10...NUAL-WSOP.html

Of note:

There's one new event announced here called "Mini Main Event" on July 1st. It's a $1k buyin, you start with 60k chips (just like the Main) and play every level of the Main. Only difference? Levels are 30 minutes instead of 120. That's a pretty damn big difference. I'll be skipping that one.

The Casino Employees event takes place on May 29, which will be the first event of the entire WSOP.

The Colussus WILL take place. Some thought that the Big 50 would replace it, but the Colussus was simply moved to June 26, and was changed to a $400 buyin (down from $565), with 40k chips and 40 minute levels. I'll also be skipping that.

"The Marathon", an event probably closest to the Main regarding structure, has 100 minute levels this year. However, the buyin is $2620, which probably prices out most recreational players. So that may not be a very good event to play.

The chips-per-buyin-dollar ratio is still all over the place.

It appears most $1k events will be 20k chips (meaning each chip is 5 cents).

It appears most $1500 events will be 25k chips (meaning each chip is 6 cents).

The Marathon gives you 26,200 chips for $2620, making each chip 10 cents

The Little One for One Drop (which I also am skipping) gives 40k chips for $1,111, making each chip 2.5 cents, if you ignore the $111 for charity.

There are still no $10k events announced besides the Main.

I wonder if they bought a lot of different chip sets. I hope they did, or I'm afraid there might be some chip theft and smuggling into other tournaments going on.

For some reason, they are releasing the schedule piece by piece.

Now they just put out the $10k+ event schedule.



Of note:

All of these events give you 6 chips per buyin dollar, meaning that they are all likely to use the same chipset (but that chipset probably won't be used in any other events).

There is a Short Deck NL event on June 2, which is new. Short Deck involves the removal of cards 2-5. The strategy is very different for this reason. I would play a Short Deck event at lower buyin, but not at $10k.

The High Roller NL event, which begins after the Main, has a $100k buyin. There's also a 6-handed $10k NL after the Main.

Of these listed, I am interested in playing the Limit Holdem (July 2), PLO 8 (June 28), and O8 (June 6).

The last three years I was mid-day-1 chipleader of the $10k Limit Holdem, and failed to cash all three times (in fact, I wasn't even close). Very annoying.

Close to the entire schedule now available on https://wsop.com/tournaments

They claim it's still "partial", but it looks close to done, if not all the way done.

All NL events will be BB ante this year.

Starting stacks are all over the place, but oddly enough, the shortest starting stack will be for $2500 events, which will get 15,000.

All events $5k+ get 6x the buyin in chips.

I'll give more commentary later.

Here's the starting stacks for 2019:





They've also announced a "Bracelets Only" event for July 10th. This is the 2nd time they've tried a gimmick event related to existing bracelet. They once had a "bracelet bounty" event, where there was a bounty only on bracelet winners. I played that one, figuring people calling off light against me would give me an edge. Unfortunately, the structure was awful (I think it was a $500 buyin event), so it didn't matter much anyway.

The Bracelets Only event is open ONLY to those who have existing WSOP bracelets -- either from eariler, or from the 2019 WSOP. It's $1500 NL. I obviously qualify for this, but I don't think I'll play it. Just seems like an extra-hard $1500 NL, mostly devoid of fish. They can't at least run it rake-free or something? There seems like zero upside to playing this, except for bragging rights for beating a field of only bracelet winners, which isn't enough of an incentive to probably flush $1500 down the toilet.

Besides, the $10k Limit Holdem is full of tons of bracelet winners nowadays, and I always play that.

Below are the events of which I have interest.

Note that I am only listing the starting days.

May 30th: $1500 Limit O8
May 30th-June 2: $500 Big 50 (will only fire one bullet, rake free, if I play this one)
June 6: $10,000 Limit O8
June 7-8: $1500 Millionaire Maker NL Holdem
June 9: $1000 NL Holdem Double Stack
June 14-15: $1000 NL Holdem Double Stack (not sure how this differs from the one above)
June 17th: $1500 PLO
June 19th: $1500 NL Holdem Bounty ($500 bounty per player knocked out)
June 21-22: $1500 Monster Stack NL Holdem
June 25: $1500 PLO8
June 27: $1500 Mixed Omaha (O8/PLO8/Big O)
June 28: $10,000 PLO8
June 29: $1500 Limit Holdem
June 28-30: $888 Crazy Eights NL Holdem (8 handed)
July 2: $10,000 Limit Holdem
July 3-5: $10,000 Main Event
July 8: $3,000 Limit Holdem
July 11: $1500 NL Holdem Double Stack

I still don't understand why they place the $3k Limit Holdem after the Main. It got a crap field last year for that reason (and I ran super-bad... nice combo!)

Anyway, I wanted to try the $10k PLO8, but it conflicts with the $1500 Limit Holdem (an event I refuse to miss), so forget that one.

The first week is kind of annoying, as I really want to play the $1500 Limit O8 (I cashed 59th out of like 1100+ entrants in my second-time-ever playing it, in 2018), but then there's nothing I want to play for the next week, except for "The Big 50", which honestly I could take or leave.

Then there's the $10k Limit O8 (which I'd like to play again -- I had an insanely soft starting table in 2018, but didn't run well enough to capitalize on it), but aside from the Millionaire Maker and some Double Stacks (which seem to be several times in the WSOP), I don't see much I want to play.

The Monster Stack is in a bad spot on the schedule for me, as usual.

I'll definitely be playing starting June 25, with the $1500 PLO8, $1500 Mixed Omaha, and $1500 Limit Holdem over a 5-day period. Then the $10k Limit Holdem is the day before the Main on July 2, but that's ok because I never play flight A anyway. And I'll be playing the Main again, along with the $3k Limit Holdem, unless I'm still in the Main.

Soooo....

Here's a preliminary "likely" schedule, which is subject to change:

Trip #1
May 30th: $1500 Limit O8
May 31st-June 2: $500 Big 50 (one bullet, starting day based upon how far I get in O8 on May 30)

Trip #2
June 6: $10,000 Limit O8
June 7-8: $1500 Millionaire Maker NL Holdem (starting day based upon how far I get in O8 on June 6)
June 9: $1000 NL Holdem Double Stack (will only play if I fail to make Day 2 of Millionaire Maker)

Trip #3
June 25: $1500 PLO8
June 27: $1500 Mixed Omaha (O8/PLO8/Big O) -- will play two bullets if necessary
June 29: $1500 Limit Holdem
June 30: $888 Crazy Eights NL Holdem (will only play if I fail to make Day 2 of $1500 Limit Holdem)
July 2: $10,000 Limit Holdem
July 3-5: $10,000 Main Event
July 8: $3,000 Limit Holdem

I will again sell packages this year.

There will be two packages:

Package #1 will contain all events $1k-$3k, at my usual 1.2 markup

Package #2 will contain the $10k Limit Holdem and $10k O8, at a discounted 1.1 markup

I will NOT be selling the Main Event or the $500 Big 50.

As usual, I will be selling 40% of my action, and keeping 60% for myself, in the two packages I am offering.

I will announce when these packages go on sale.

This is a preliminary schedule, and may change.

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The Bracelets Only event is open ONLY to those who have existing WSOP bracelets -- either from eariler, or from the 2019 WSOP. It's $1500 NL. I obviously qualify for this, but I don't think I'll play it. Just seems like an extra-hard $1500 NL, mostly devoid of fish. They can't at least run it rake-free or something?

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It should be 100% rake free....and a prestigious event. Of course, the greedy fucks at WSOP think otherwise.

Preliminary packages I'll be selling for the WSOP:

Package #1 -- $1k to $3k events -- 20% markup
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May 30th: $1500 Limit O8
June 5: $1100 Limit O8 satellite (will pay any winnings as cash)
June 7-8: $1500 Millionaire Maker NL Holdem (starting day based upon how far I get in O8 on June 6)
June 9: $1000 NL Holdem Double Stack (will only play if I fail to make Day 2 of Millionaire Maker)
June 25: $1500 PLO8
June 27: $1500 Mixed Omaha (O8/PLO8/Big O) -- will play two bullets if necessary
June 29: $1500 Limit Holdem
July 1: $1100 Limit Holdem satellite (will pay any winnings as cash)
July 8: $3000 Limit Holdem 6-Max
Total Buyins: $15,200
0.5% cost before markup: $76
Each share (0.5%) after markup: $91.20

Package #2 -- $10k Limit Events -- 15% markup
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June 6: $10,000 Limit O8
July 2: $10,000 Limit Holdem
Total Buyins: $20,000
0.5% cost before markup: $100
Each share (0.5%) after markup: $115

Not selling:
May 31-June 2: $500 Big 50
June 30: $888 Crazy Eights NL Holdem (will only play if I fail to make Day 2 of $1500 Limit Holdem)
July 4: $10,000 Main Event

Note that I am only marking up the big events 15% this year.

Do not reserve shares yet, as these are not yet for sale. I will announce when they are.

There will also be a contest at some point for 1 share of each package.

I looked at some of the structures and it is actually pretty good.

Here is the monster stack structure and others have the exact same structure:
https://www.wsop.com/pdfs/structures...1622_17292.pdf

Structures now online at wsop.com/tournaments for all non-Holdem events.

Druff’s take on no online bracelets now looks LOL bad as WSOP have announced NINE this year

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Originally Posted by MrTickle

Druff’s take on no online bracelets now looks LOL bad as WSOP have announced NINE this year

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I did think it was possible they hadn't announced them yet.

However, it was also possible they would be eliminated due to the new interpretation of the Wire Act.