We are still over 5 months away from the start of the 2010 World Series of Poker. But even with the WSOP being so far away, Harrah’s Entertainment hasn’t wasted any time in releasing the tournament schedule for the world’s largest poker event.
The most glaring change to the WSOP schedule is that the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. tourney has been removed. This is a very interesting move since many of the world’s top pros enjoyed playing the $50K H.O.R.S.E. event. However, the amount of entrants decreased from 148 players in 2008 to just 95 entrants in 2009, which showed waning popularity for the prestigious tournament.
Taking the $50k H.O.R.S.E. tournament’s place will be another $50k event in the $50,000 Mixed Event. This tournament will consist of Seven Card Razz, Seven Card Stud, Omaha Hi-Lo, Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo, No Limit Hold’em, Limit Hold’em, Pot Limit Hold’em, and 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball. In addition to the announcement of this new $50k tournament, ESPN will also be broadcasting the final table.
Another big move by Harrah’s involved getting rid of some of the mid-level Omaha and Stud events, and replacing them with more $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em tournaments. The obvious reason for this move is because the mid-level buy-in Omaha and Stud tourneys didn’t draw many entrants. On the other hand, last year’s $1,000 Stimulus Special was very popular and brought in over 6,100 players. Harrah’s is hoping to recreate this level of enthusiasm with their additional $1,000 buy-in tournaments.
One more change to the 2010 WSOP from previous years is that Harrah’s will be taking more rake from the $1,000 and $1,500 buy-in tourneys. Last year, Harrah’s Entertainment took a 9% rake while this year, they will be increasing that rake to 10%. It will be interesting to see if these tournaments still draw big numbers with the increased rake.
