2013 WSOP Schedule Analyzed

The schedule for the 2013 WSOP was released last week by officials at Caesars Entertainment. Sixty-two bracelets will be up for grabs from May 29 to July 15 at Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. The "November Nine" will return for 2013 and crown a champion in the $10,000 no-limit hold'em event on November 5th. online poker 468x60 Here are a few of the noteworthy items from this year's WSOP schedule: The Millionaire Maker Caesars officials appear to be going for more pizazz in their offerings at the 2013 WSOP. Chief evidence of this is a $1,500 buy-in no-limit hold'em tournament that will start on June 1st; dubbed 'The Millionaire Maker', this special event has a guaranteed first-place prize of $1,000,000. Since this is likely to be one-fifth of the prizepool or more, the payout jump between first and second can be expected to be rather enormous. Nonetheless, this is a great promotional gimmick by Caesars that should bring plane load after plane load of donkeys out to the desert to chase a life-changing prize. $5,000 Eight-Handed Event Gets It Going Each year it seems that Caesars experiments with a different approach for starting the WSOP. We've seen years with a special $40,000 no-limit event, the $50,000 Player's Championship being used to launch action, and a $25,000 heads-up championship as the first open-field event. Each of these events were rather elitist and exclusive by nature; only poker's most accomplished and well-bankrolled players had a reason to be in Las Vegas for the start of the WSOP. This year, Caesars is trying a different approach. A $5,000 buy-in no-limit eight-handed event will commence the action on May 29th. This is a perfect event for striking the middle ground between starting the series with a prestigious tournament that will draw big name professionals without being too inaccessible for lesser accomplished players. Additionally, the eight-handed caveat is a nice twist. All "full ring" no-limit games should be played eight-handed. That'll never happen, but it's nice to see a new event pop up at the WSOP that doesn't insist on cramming ten to a table at all times. Ladies Event Weirdness Caesars has taken a unique approach to the Ladies-Only Event for 2013: the tournament will have a $10,000 buy-in but if you have a vagina you can buy-in for only $1,000. This is, presumably, some type of compromise from Caesars officials who are not wanting to deal with the potential fallout of prohibiting men from playing the tournament. Additionally, this rule change will silence women from complaining if men participate in their tournament; this year women should be rooting for men to play if it means they're each adding $10,000 to the prizepool. To any man who seriously contemplates playing in this tournament due to thinking that they might still have an edge at this weighted buy-in: stop. The ladies event might be a good spot but it can't be that good of a spot. Only One Re-Entry Event In our predictions for the 2013 WSOP article, we were somewhat mistaken that there would be several re-entry events on this year's schedule. Only two events feature the option to re-enter on a subsequent starting day. A third event will allow players to re-enter within the first four levels an unlimited number of times. One Drop Here to Stay There is no $1,000,000 buy-in on this year's WSOP schedule, but the WSOP's alignment with Cirque du Soleil founder Guy LaLiberte's charity 'One Drop' has not subsided for 2013. There are two events on the schedule that will offer 3% of their prizepools to the One Drop charity. First is the 'One Drop High Rollers' event, a $111,111 buy-in no-limit tournament on June 26th that one can expect to be astoundingly popular. Expect to see over 100 of poker's most ambitious figures register for this event. Finally, there is a $1,111 buy-in 'Little One for One Drop' on July 3rd, just before the $10,000 Main Event. The Little One for One Drop will feature two starting days and allow players to re-enter an unlimited number of times within the first four levels on either of the two starting days. One can expect this event to be obscenely popular; a total number of entries in excess of 7,500 would not be terribly shocking. Kudos to Caesars officials for putting together one of the most exciting WSOP schedules to date.