The 47th World Series of Poker (WSOP) – the longest-running, richest and most prestigious tournament series – opens its doors on Tuesday, May 31, 2016 at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.
The something-for-everyone schedule includes gold bracelet events, satellites, cash games and thrice daily deep stack tournaments running for 50 consecutive days, with the WSOP Main Event reaching its final nine players on Monday, July 18, 2016.
The first open event of the 2016 schedule will feature the return of the world’s largest live poker event, which has been revamped to make it bigger and better in 2016. Colossus II will feature an additional $2,000,000 in guaranteed prize pool (thus at $7 million, up from $5 million) and two additional entry flights. Also of note is a guaranteed $1,000,000 first place prize. And perhaps most importantly, Colossus II will use the format successfully introduced at WSOPE’s Oktoberfest event where each starting flight plays into the money. This will not only ease congestion observed last year, but also allow a player to potentially cash multiple times in the event.
Colossus II will be a $565 buy-in re-entry No-Limit Hold’em tournament with flights on Thursday, June 2, Friday, June 3 and Saturday, June 4. The format will include re-entry, allowing players to enter the other starting flights if they fail to advance initially. After a record 22,374 entrants last year, with a first place prize of $638,880, organizers hope to set a new record for largest live poker tournament in what this year will be officially Event #2.
Also back on the schedule in 2016 are the popular Millionaire Maker, Monster Stack, Little One for ONE DROP, Seniors Event and Ladies Championship.
The summer poker festival reaches its pinnacle with the globe’s longest-running poker tournament — the $10,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em WSOP Main Event championship — which is slated to run over ten consecutive days from July 9 – July 18, 2016 and will feature three starting flights – Saturday, July 9; Sunday, July 10; and Monday, July 11.
The first event on the schedule is the Casino Employees event, which will take place on Wednesday, June 1 this year, featuring a $565 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em two-day tournament.
The date is also confirmed for this year’s Senior Event, which will again feature a $1,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em format for those aged 50 or older and begin at 10:00am on Friday, June 17.
The average WSOP gold bracelet event in 2015 featured a $3,093,813 prize pool with $558,571 going to the event’s winner. The 2015 WSOP featured the Top 5 field sizes of the year in all of poker with the Main Event (6,420), Millionaire Maker (7,275), Monster Stack (7,192), Little One for ONE DROP (4,555) and Colossus (22,374) entries combining to attract a staggering 47,816 entries. The Colossus became the largest live poker tournament ever held, and the 103,512 entries at the 2015 WSOP were the most in the event’s 46-year history.
“We want to wish everyone Happy Holidays and best wishes for 2016,” said WSOP Executive Director Ty Stewart. “We hope some of your New Year Resolution’s will include capturing a WSOP gold bracelet in the coming year. We expect another well-rounded schedule offering something for everyone and another record-breaking opening with Colossus II on tap to make a millionaire right out of the gate.”
Buy-ins for tournaments at the Rio start as low as $75. Cash games will begin on May 31 and run 24 hours a day throughout the seven-week series taking place in the spacious Rio Convention Center for the 12th consecutive year.
Nearly 500 poker tables will be set up across more than 100,000 square-feet of ballroom space to accommodate the thousands of players from around the world who attend poker’s annual Woodstock.
The 2015 WSOP attracted 103,512 entrants – the largest attendance in the WSOP’s 46-year history – in a total of 68 events, generating a prize pool of more than $210 million. Participants in WSOP events hailed from 111 countries in 2015. The WSOP Main Event, won by Philly’s Joe McKeehen this year, attracted 6,420 players and was televised on ESPN television for the fourteenth consecutive year.
The current slate of individual events offered during the 47th Annual WSOP are being finalized, with 60+ official gold bracelet events expected, with weekends catering to the No-Limit Hold’em weekend warriors and a broad range of other variations of poker at both entry level and championship level buy-ins being mixed in throughout the series.
The full event-by-event schedule is expected to be released sometime in January or February.