Harrahs, operator of the WSOP 2010, has unveiled the official events list for the 41st annual World Series of Poker set to begin from May 27th, 2010 with the Casino Employees No-Limit Hold’em, and final events on November 9th, 2010 with the Main Event final table.

The WSOP event schedule names a total of 57 bracelets events, including three brand new poker events ($50,000 Player’s Championship Event #2, $10,000 H.O.R.S.E Event #43, World Championship, $25,000 6-Handed No-Limit tournament Event #52). The WSOP 2010 event schedule includes a few changes, for example, the $50.000 H.O.R.S.E event has been substituted with the $50,000 “Player’s Championship” (Event #2), featuring eight different poker games (Limit Hold’em, Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better, Seven Card Razz, Seven Card Stud, Seven Card Stud Hi-Low Split-8 or Better, No-Limit Hold’em, Pot-Limit Omaha, 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball).

The initial 5 weekends of the series (May 29-30, June 5-6, June 12-13, June 19-20 and June 26-27) will feature $1,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em tournaments with two preliminary flights. In addition, a sixth schedule of events on July 1-2, will also present the same event at the same buy-in level. The 41st annual 2010 WSOP will close on Monday, July 5th with the $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em Championship Main Event. The Main Event will take some time off on July 17th, and will continue on four months later with the “November Nine” final table running from November 6th-9th

Other modifications announced for the 2010 World Series of Poker comprise of several new regulations that will standardize the amount of play on a daily basis, and the addition of more poker tables. According to the WSOP official site, the entire convention center of the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino will be commited to the World Series of Poker 2010, with tournament tables in the 58,000 square foot Pavilion and the 38,000 square foot Amazon Room.

The WSOP 2010 is also giving participants over five months to sign-up for the first event on the World Series of Poker schedule. Pre-registration for the World Series of Poker 2010 is offered at the Main Cage of the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino and on the internet at the World World Series of Poker website. Registration for all bracelet events will remain open until the start of the third level (approximately 2 hours, 20 minutes after start time) or until all seats are sold.

“Whatever your game and whatever your bankroll, the 2010 WSOP schedule offers something for everyone. We are planning for the largest WSOP ever and look forward to welcoming all players to the Rio in Las Vegas next summer.” said WSOP Tournament Director Jack Effel.

2010 WSOP event schedule

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The Biggest cash prize yet was announced by Bodog’s website, with the main Texas hold em event giving away $300,000. The total for the eight day poker event will be more than $650,000, over the course of the weeklong poker tournament. The Bodog Texas Hold em event will begin Sunday, September 28th and continues through Sunday, October 5th. The well-known Texas Hold em tournament website will also feature six “Bounty” tournaments, where the participants can win $109 in Texas Hold em credits for each Team Bodog poker competitor they knock out of the poker event. The biggest poker celebs will be playing all rivals in the poker tournament.

Team Bodog star, Justin Bonomo, is undeniably thrilled about the event. Over the course of his poker playing career, the 23 year old has brought home nearly $1.4 million. He says that if you thought the first poker championship was big, you will definitely be astounded with this year’s tournament and the prize money involved. He also challenges anyone that has the courage to eliminate him from the poker tournament to step forward.

The Kick off Bounty Tournament is going to be the first poker game in the championship on Sunday. Any poker player is able to buy-In right into this, and any of the other poker matches with cash. Or another option is to win their way into the events through the satellites which are presented every night during the Texas Hold em contest week. There will be six bounty events and seven “Championship Events”, which will feature higher buy-ins and deeper stacks.

There are thirteen eliminatories which will lead up to the main poker event on Sunday, October 5 at 4:00 p.m. E.S.T. This is the grand prize event with a guaranteed $300,000 in cash, despite the amount of poker players in the Bodog Open. All the players who decide to enter the main poker contest will have to shell out $500 for the buy-in and in exchange will be given 10,000 in tournament chips.

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According to the 2006 World Series of Poker champ, Jamie Gold, he would be happy to be celebrated as the all time best bluffer in the world. But if his last Texas Holdem tournament is any indication, his wish may not come true ever.

The setting is the 2007 Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic held at the Vegas Bellagio in 2007. Featuring $50 - $100 blinds and a $15,000 buy-in, Darrell Dicken is close to the end of his run. The seat 4 player has just raised his bet to $300, a pretty small raise with only one player biting the line. “I put him as being weak,” Jamie said, “I was thinking about raising, but instead I just called with a 10-3 of hearts to see what would happen.”

Jamie was thinking that Brad Booth would make some kind of move, which he did. He re-raised to $1600 from the big blind. Gold had the idea that Booth had a reasonable hand, but he was in a superb position to make a move considering the amount of dead money in the pot. Dicken folded, and the unknown in Seat 4 called Booth’s raise.

At this point there was more than $4000 in the pot, so Jamie raised the wager by $4000. His thought was, only if someone else had aces or kings there would be no possibility they would make that call. Jamie’s strategy was to make a considerable move on the flop, as long as no ace was dealt. The second part of his plan was to get Booth to fold, which he did. Booth folded with pocket queens.

On the flop there was an ace of ace-6-5, two clubs. The player in seat 4 checked and Jamie bet $2000. Jamie’s first thought was to make him think that he had clubs. Seat 4 tossed out a $10,000 chip, but didn’t say anything thus turning his raise into a call. Jamie’s thought was that seat 4 most likely had an ace, but you have to protect it in case he hits his set on the following card.

A 2 of hearts appeared on the turn, and Jamie folded to what he thought was a top pair kicker. Seat 4 displayed a king-jack off suit. Seat 4 beat Gold by bluffing with a higher hand, he forced a magnificent poker play and took the bluff to the end of the poker tournament.

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Shortly after the beginning of last week’s charity poker game to support the Paralyzed Veterans of America, Ben Affleck goes all-in with a flop of Ace-Nine-King and two diamonds. He winces when two of his rivals call the bet. He yells “Re-buy”, but the turn is a seven of hearts. Affleck is disappointed when a jack of diamonds is dealt on the river. He took the hand seriously even though there was no actual cash at stake. This is just the kind of thing that Affleck and several other internet poker enthusiasts are petitioning for.

Over $100,000 was raised for the paralyzed victims, but this was not the only function of the celebrity poker event held in Coors Field. Members of the Poker Players Alliance are working very hard to legalize internet poker in the United States. As part of their agenda, they are pushing to repeal the 2006 legislation Congress passed which bans U.S. Banks and credit card companies from processing transactions related to internet poker websites.

John Pappas, executive director of the Poker Players Alliance, is optimistic about the direction that the new congress will lead this decision. Pappas says that the alliance is pushing for a licensed industry, just for online poker, and not for all online gaming. Pappas is interested in having a safe, regulated industry that all Americans can enjoy. The group is fighting for the rights of people and the privacy they deserve in their own home.

“There are misconceptions about poker and about online poker,” poker pro Andy Bloch said in between hands during the charity celebrity poker event. “Some people think that internet gaming is gambling like a slot machine, and it’s not.”

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Can you imagine walking into a famous Sin City casino and seeing no poker dealers, chips, or poker cards? Well if this seems difficult to believe, you may be in for a big shock. The Sin City based hotel Excalibur is now trying out with this new radical idea of automating everything from the dealers, to the actual poker tables. Executives from the casino hotel are going to equip the poker rooms with 12 digital machines for a six-month trial period.
The North-Carolina based business PokerTek is in charge of the automated machines, which are reinventing the way poker will be played in Las Vegas, Nevada. The enterprise already has 230 computers around the world, with the biggest located in Casino du Montreal (a total of 25 computers were installed in this Canadian casino).
So what are the side-effects of this makeover? For starters, about 40 Excalibur poker dealers will be searching for new jobs. Some of these dealers have been functioning at the casino since its opening in 1990. Todd DeRemer, Excalibur’s Vice President of Casino Operations, says that the poker dealers will be offered other dealer careers in the same casino hotel.
According to DeRemer, the makeover is being made to give rookie players a chance to play this popular game without feeling intimidated. He had already played these new machines before deciding upon the renovation. “It’s not overwhelming”, he says, “We think that portion will bring back the gamblers”.
The improved computers will allow the poker players to play Texas hold’em, seven card stud and Omaha. 40-inch flat screen televisions, which are located in the center of the table, will display each table’s community cards, gambler’s stakes and the pot.

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Considering the popularity of the Texas Hold’em poker tournaments around the world, selecting this type of event as a promoter is a wise choice and will generally end up with a highly profitable take at the end of the business day. With the popularity of the Texas Hold’em poker tournament, it is not surprising to see so many proprietors leaning on this type of event in order to bring in more players to the tournaments in general. With more players come more revenue and more in coming dollars from players who may not get the chance to compete very often in these types of tournaments. As world famous players are attracted to this type of event as well as new players who have never competed, the Texas Hold’em poker tournaments have done an ample job of bringing in players from all around the world in the competitions that exists at these types of tournaments

As players flock from all over to the Texas Hold’em poker tournaments that are so popular and effectively generate so much revenue, it becomes readily apparent that these types of poker tournament circuits and tours are calculated for the maximum impact and exposure to allow more and more players to come on board as they become interested in competing.

With so many players coming in to try their luck, skilled and unskilled, experienced and inexperienced, it is obvious that planners and organizers of these types of events, as well as the establishment proprietors, benefit from the accumulation of a tremendous amount of revenue. With the focus on holding these over-the-top events in as profitable an area as possible, the establishment proprietors and planners as well as organizers make every effort to ensure that every penny is generated through these types of events.

This is the key focus of these types of Texas Hold’em poker tournaments, bringing in more and more players to the poker rooms and casinos in general. The major poker tournaments are a highly popular way of affecting this, as each tournament brings hundreds upon hundreds and sometimes thousands of players, creating an advertising and marketing bonanza that many industries would love to take advantage of. With all the popularity of the poker tournament and the poker competitions that are held around the world, it is not hard to see that there is a committed amount of revenue generated through these types of events. With these ultra-popular Texas Hold’em poker tournaments, it is not hard to see that there is a tremendous amount of revenue being generated through these types of Texas Hold’em poker tournaments and the popularity that they enjoy.

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When an event such as the World Series of poker tournament in Las Vegas is advertised and hyped to such an extent that it is at the forefront of the popular conscious of the world, it can sometimes unbalance the level of activity and interest that takes place in the gaming and gambling capital in the desert. With this extremely polarizing effect, the players who are fascinated with the World Series of poker might forego traveling to the area for any other reason throughout the year, preferring to save up for the one big shot at the World Series of poker tournament. While it is true that the World Series of poker tournament in Las Vegas is one of the most exhilarating and exciting experiences in the gaming and gambling world, it does not make sense to put all of the emphasis on this one event to the exclusion of all other events throughout the year, this is exactly what happens as the Las Vegas World Series of poker tournament becomes more and more hyped through marketing and advertising efforts around the world. With professional level players who travel less and less, intending to put all their effort into this one annual competition, the revenues generated throughout the rest of the year in Las Vegas tend to dwindle at the gaming and gambling tables only to resurge again when the famous events such as the World Series of poker tournament in Las Vegas are held. Beginning weeks in advance and lasting till long after the event itself is over, the hyping and marketing of the event has much to do with Las Vegas hotels and casinos and their determination to earn revenue from the investments that they have made in these types of events as well as the excitement and buzz that builds around the tournament on its own.

With the extreme popularity of this one type of event, it makes it easy to overlook the wealth of Texas Hold’em poker tournaments that take place throughout the year in various locations including Las Vegas and other cities around the world. By overshadowing and even eclipsing the popularity of the lesser-known Texas Hold’em poker tournament events, the World Series of poker tournament in Las Vegas creates a warping effect on the Las Vegas economy that is focused on the one world-famous event to the exclusion of all others, creating a vacuum of advertising and exposure that is detrimental to the Las Vegas economy in general due to the lack of year-round income and effort to stay strong at the Texas Hold’em poker tournaments.

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The European poker tour has drawn so much attention from around the world with the tremendous level of competitors from the international community who are looking to duke it out over the European poker tour tournament tables in locations around the world. With the focus on bringing in players from all over, the European poker tour has been extremely successful at drawing some truly big-name players and has even benefited from the presence of World Series of poker tournament in Las Vegas winner, Phil Hellmuth. While these types of big names do much for the advertising and publicity level that these types of events receive, it is the last thing that their competitors wish to see. Knowing that you have to compete with players as talented as Phil Hellmuth has to be the most difficult challenge of all time for any professional level poker tournament player, whether European, American or Martian.

Unfortunately for many international and European players, America produces some of the most aggressive and relentlessly skilled Texas Hold’em poker tournament players in the world, featuring some of the most able gamblers and gamers that the world has ever seen. With this level of competition, European players might have their work cut out for them in attempting to take the final table and earn cash in the Texas Hold’em poker tournament competition. While these poker tournaments tend to draw players from all over the world, it is interesting to know that the most competent and talented players generally come from the Las Vegas area, having been born and bred on gaming and gambling and perfected their skill at the tables at the Las Vegas hotels and casinos that feature so much competition between talented players.

Considering the world level of competition and strength of the players that are competing in the European poker tour, it isn’t hard to believe that there are some of the world’s highest-ranked players and most talented competitors taking it to the limit every day on the European poker tour as well as the rest of the poker tournaments that are conducted throughout the world on a regular basis. With professional level players from all over the world, it only remains to be seen who might take the winning match and what nationality they might be, as the winning nation will certainly have some considerable bragging rights after such an amazing victory.

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