The 50th annual World Series of Poker has been one of the most anticipated poker events in 2019 and it has finally begun. On Wednesday, May 29, the event returned to the Rio All-Suites Hotel and Casino with a total of 89 events as well as Daily DeepStacks tournaments and big cash games action. Already, this year’s WSOP tournament structure is the very best in its history especially since the players will be kicking off the events with more chips than ever.
Day 1 Action
The WSOP kicked off its 2019 schedule with the Event #1: $500 Casino Employees No-Limit Hold’em which has become a tradition for the company – it is basically intended to thank and appreciate the operator’s employees who include bartenders, dealers, pit bosses, cage employees and many other of its workers from all across the world. These players were given the chance at WSOP gold with a special $500 buy-in tournament.
This Casino Employees event that dates back to 2000 received a massive overhaul in 2019, that is, it features a deeper structure with the players starting off the action with 25,000 in chips and three days of gameplay with 40-minute blind levels starting at 100/100. In comparison, last year the players started with only 5,000 in chips and played for only two days with 30-minute blind levels starting at 25/25.
Next, we had Event #2: $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em Super Turbo Bounty for the second year in a row. For this event, the WSOP brought some high stakes poker players to the arena for some exciting and action-packed poker. It is set to be a two-day event where the participants will have 60,000 in starting chips with 20-minute blind levels starting at 100/100.
Day 2 Action
The Event #1: $500 Casino Employees Event and Event #2: $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em Super Turbo Bounty continued on the second day of the tournament series with the latter featuring renowned poker pro Daniel Negreanu. The poker star recently got hitched and later announced that he was parting ways with PokerStars, his longtime sponsor but these occurrences did not negatively impact his schedule – he was at the venue event at noon on Wednesday, just in time to start playing at the tables of the $10,000 super turbo bounty event. With this particular event, the poker pro is gunning for his seventh WSOP bracelet.
Another notable event that was played on Day 2 was the highly-anticipated Event #3: BIG 50 – $500 No-Limit Hold’em, a four-day celebration of the 50th anniversary of the WSOP. There was also the Event #4: $1,500 Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better which was the first non-hold’em game and it will run for four days.
