The World Series of Poker has announced 34-additional events for the 2019 schedule, Big Blind Ante across the No-Limit Hold’em board and a new Champion of Champions tournament.
There’s been a lot of talk of ‘residency’ in Sin City this week. Drake has reportedly signed a multi-million dollar deal to create bags under people’s eyes in XS, Cardi B is going to be the star attraction when KAOS opens at the Palms in April, and Flavor Flav is in talks to bring his one-person variety performance to town.
A residency is the hash brown on a full English breakfast.
A residency is a tofu fart beneath the covers.
A residency is a goldmine.
The World Series of Poker (WSOP) has had one ever since Mr Nixon thought it smart to give Cambodia a good kick-in, and the team behind the brand released another schedule snippet this morning.
The event quota is up to 74 and rising after the WSOP released details on a further 34-events. There was no period anywhere in the post, so let’s assume, for now, there is more to come.
There are two main stories, and both of them involve improvements to WSOP structures. After trialing the Big Blind Ante (BBA) concept during the 2018 WSOP and World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE), the team has taken the obvious choice of moving forward with a full implementation of the rule. In 2019, all No-Limit Hold’em (NLHE) events (bracelet, Deepstack and Mega Satellite) will feature the BBA rule.
The other highlight is increased starting stacks across the board.
Here is a sample.
Starting Stacks (NLHE & PLO)
$500 buy-in 25k (2019) v 5k (2018)
$888 buy-in 40k v 8k
$1k buy-in 20k v 5k
$1.5k buy-in 25k v 7.5k
$100k buy-in 600k v 500k
There are also minor increases in the Mixed Games, including 50,000 additional chips for the $50,000 Poker Players’ Championship with players beginning with 300,000 chips.
There is one new event that stands out.
On Wednesday, July 10 starting at 3 pm, there will be an exclusive $1,500 buy-in event for former WSOP bracelet winners. As of this morning, there are 1,078 bracelet winners, and every 2019 winner will also be eligible. The Champions of Champions tournament is a 50,000 starting stack event.
The Big 50 event ($500 buy-in, $5m GTD $1m GTD for the winner), will play to 12-levels on Day 1, 8-levels on Day 2 before the fields merge into a single mass on Day 3. Players can expect to jump triumphantly from their chairs sometime during Day 2.
Not everyone is a fan of the changes.
Mohsin Charania became a Triple Crown winner after defeating 1,580-entrants to take down a $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em last year, and he had this to say about the changes.
When I first started playing @WSOP people went to other casinos for low stakes buy-in events and now you go to the @WSOP for low stakes buy-in tournaments and other casinos for real buy-in tournaments
— Mohsin Charania (@Mohsin_Charania) January 23, 2019
WSOP’s Seth Palansky reacted by reminding Charania that there are 20-events priced $10k or higher. Charania returned fire drawing Palansky’s attention to the fact that most of the $10k+ events are for mixed game players. David Williams then suggested Charania should learn the Mixed Games.
“We welcome you with open arms,” said Williams.
I’ll give Charania the final word.
“You enjoy your under 100 player 10k Mixed Events, don’t try to drag me into that shit.”
It sounds like a Flavour Flav lyric to me.
