
On Thursday, Caesars Interactive Entertainment released the schedule for the 2013 World Series of Poker. Among the additions are a $1,500 “Millionaire Maker” event in which the first-place prize will be a minimum of $1 million; a non-bracelet, open-face Chinese poker event; and a new, $10,000 price tag for the Ladies Event.
Female players will receive a $9,000 discount for playing in the Ladies Event; males will have to fork over the entire buy-in.
PokerNews reached out to some of the most notable players in the game to find out their favorite and least favorite changes.
Matt Glantz: “I love the way they found a creative way to handle the Ladies Event. I never understood why several male poker players felt the need to ruin something that is very good for poker, and I never got a valid reason from otherwise sensible poker players that decided to crash that party.
“To answer your question, “what is the worst change for the WSOP this year,” I would really have to nitpick to find an answer. For that reason, I don’t think I have a legitimate answer. They did a great job. Ty [Stewart], Jack [Effel], Seth [Palansky] and the rest of their team really should be commended for putting together another excellent schedule and always running what seems like a enormously overwhelming endeavor.”
Jason Mercier: “I don’t see too many changes in the schedule, but I am excited about the $111,111 buy-in event. I’m also looking forward to the $1,500 event with first place guaranteed to be $1 million.
“As far as events removed, the only one I really noticed was the $1,500 no-limit 2-7 single draw. That event was always a fun one because the atmosphere was great and it was a good way of drumming up interest for 2-7 single draw – a game that’s not spread that frequently.”
David “Doc” Sands: “By a wide margin, my favorite component of the 2013 WSOP schedule is the addition of the $111,111 super high roller. What a great event! I play $100,000 events all over the world, and this one promises to be the largest, most prestigious and most publicized – and its right in my back yard! With the prestige of the WSOP, this event could draw 100 players and pay $4 million to first place. I am also excited about the $25,000 six-max event and the addition of re-entries to a couple of the weekend events. As virtually anyone who plays primarily no-limit hold’em will tell you, this is my favorite WSOP schedule ever.
“By and large, the schedule is great, and I have very few complaints. I would, however, prefer it if they had left the Pot-Limit Hold’em Championship event as a $10,000 buy-in. This year they reduced the buy-in to a $5,000, and I really don’t see the point. I think they reduced the buy-in to attract a few more players, but the change will almost certainly have a negative impact on the prize pool, which will undoubtedly be smaller than it was last year. Going forward, I would also like to see the WSOP add more $2,500 no-limit hold’em events. The events become so much more skill-based with the extra starting chips, and the prize pools are generally bigger than they would be if the event was a $1,500 buy-in.”
Adam Levy: “I think it’s great that they added an eight-max tournament to the schedule. I wish every World Poker Tour or big main event was eight-max. While only losing one seat doesn’t sound like that big of a deal, the difference in play is considerable, and more leg room is always a plus. Also, this year more than ever they have put a lot of great tourneys at the beginning of the WSOP, which will provide for great attendance right off the bat. TheOne Drop high roller tourney will be a blast to rail, and I’m happy they at least have a super high buy-in event this year after the success of the One Drop last year.
“Obviously, the biggest change is the Ladies Event, and I am happy that they have figured out some sort of loophole regarding it. I do think there will be one bonehead guy who decides to put down the $10,000. I’m sure some of the ladies will still be very annoyed if a guy plays, but this time they will be completely paying for it – literally tenfold. From a strictly tourney poker standpoint, go right ahead, make that prize pool juicier, but I assume only the true lady grinders will realize that.”
Christian Harder: “I think largely, the WSOP did a good job with the changes. I especially like the $1,000 turbo event and the $5,000 eight-max event. Eight-max is now the trend for all high-roller events, and it makes a lot of sense to add it to the schedule. All the players who will play like it, and it’s a slightly more skillful form of poker. The $1,000 turbo event will, of course, be a fun addition, and I don’t think it will diminish the integrity of the bracelet or anything.
“Taking away the half pot-limit Omaha, half no-limit hold’em heads-up tournament and the $1,500 no-limit 2-7 single draw was a little disappointing, but I can’t blame the WSOP for taking them off the schedule.”
Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier: “My least favorite change is definitely the number of events with the possibility to re-enter or rebuy. I just don’t think it’s good for most amateur players who are already at a disadvantage for a bracelet. I just don’t think WSOP bracelet events should be re-entry or rebuys. Instead, they could have a $50,000 rebuy high roller non-bracelet [event]. That would be much better, in my opinion.
“I love the Ladies Event change and also the fact that they now have a few four-day events – they should have more. Overall, it’s a great schedule and I’m super excited to be going back to fight there again this year!”
Unfortunately, none of the female players were available for comment regarding the change to the Ladies Event, but many posted their thoughts on Twitter.
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Check out the original source here! Originally from PokerNews.com
February 04 2011, Martin Harris

Happy Friday, poker peoples. The Super Bowl is almost upon us, but the approach of the big game hasn’t slowed the poker world down much. Tonight’s Turbo brings you all the latest, including structure sheets for the 2011 WSOP events, the latest on the Bellagio chip thief, a poker convention to be hosted by a social network gaming giant, and more.
In Case You Missed It
They are down to the final table at the 2011 Borgata Winter Poker Open, where Ukrainian Vadm Shlez leads with ten players remaining. Donnie Peters recaps the action from Day 4.
Mickey Doft has been sorting through the 2011 WSOP schedule, in particular looking at some of the many non-hold’em events on offer. Check out Mickey’s “Guide to Omaha, Stud, and Mixed Events” at this year’s Series.
Meanwhile, Chad Holloway has been monitoring the latest high-stakes action online, including battles taking place between Viktor “Isildur1′ Blom and Brian “$tinger88” Hastings. See his latest “Online Railbird Report” for details.
PokerNews’ Kristy Arnett has also been busy of late. In the latest installment of “Las Vegas Life,” Kristy brings us up to date on her activities for the past month, her adventures having taken her on a round trip from Vegas to the Bahamas and back. See what Kristy has been up to here.
A new episode of the PokerNews Podcast has arrived, and on this one Adam Geyer and Randy “nanonoko” Lew stop by with some tips on multitabling. Tune in.
Finally, for those looking for tips for betting this weekend’s Super Bowl XLV — including how to handle all of those proposition bets — Rich Ryan has some ideas to share. See how Rich thinks the coin toss will go (and more) here.
Structures for 2011 WSOP events made available
In late December, dates for the 2011 World Series of Poker were announced. Then a little over a week ago came the full schedule which provided details of the record 58 bracelet events that will be comprising this year’s Series.
Today came structure sheets for all of those events, giving players plenty of time to study how each event will be managed before deciding to play.
As previously announced, for events with one-hour levels players will never be forced to play more than 10 levels in a single day. Also, for events with late afternoon (5 p.m.) Day 1 start times, dinner breaks will last only 30 minutes rather than a full hour.
All of the structure sheeets can be viewed on the WSOP site.
Further details emerge regarding Bellagio chip thief
More news today regarding this week’s arrest of Anthony Michael Carleo, the man accused of robbing the Bellago of $1.5 million worth of chips back in December.
As we reported in last night’s Turbo, Carleo was arrested after apparently trying to sell some of the stolen chips to undercover officers.
Today comes further word that Carleo had in fact attempted to sell stolen chips on the popular poker forum TwoPlusTwo via messages with other users. Reports today include other details of the thief’s recklessness, including his having left one $25,000 chip with a Salvation Army bell ringer and his having made bold statements about the robbery to a Bellagio dealer afterwards.
Read more about Carleo at Sports Interaction.com.
Zynga Poker to host “PokerCon” in March
On March 18th and 19th, the social network game developer Zynga will be hosting its first-ever PokerCon. The two-day convention will take place at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas.
Among the events scheduled are a live poker tournament with a $100,000-plus prize pool, appearances by various celebrities and poker pros, a party, and meet-and-greet opportunities with Zynga Poker executives.
In addition to hugely popular games like Farmville and Mafia Wars, Zynga’s poker game — playable on Facebook, Yahoo!, MySpace, and smart phones — attracts over 37 million players every month.
Tickets for PokerCon are set to go on sale next Friday, February 11th, with the $125 fee covering all of the different activities.
Starting Monday, check with Zynga for further details regarding PokerCon.
Speaking of Facebook, you can find PokerNews there as well under pokernewsdotcom. And for up-to-the-minute news follow us on Twitter, too!
Right now not only can you get a free $50 bankroll from PartyPoker and PokerNews, you will also get a free month at PokerNews Strategy. Go to our PartyPoker Free $50 Page and follow the walk-through.




