With the start of the 2018 World Series of Poker less than two months away, WSOP executives offered some interesting news this week. One pertains to a new format to be introduced in eight of the summer tournaments, and the other is the WSOP Europe set to begin in October.
In other news, registration for the summer events opened this week at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.
https://twitter.com/WSOP/status/981925768727949313
Big Blind Ante Format
The WSOP tries to appeal to as many players as possible each year. For the 2018 summer series, the powers-that-be released the full daily schedule, including all 78 gold bracelet events, in the second week of last December. The early release and the addition of new more bracelet events, as well as the inclusion of four online bracelet tournaments and new events like the “Closer” were a sign of more perks to follow.
The most prominent of this week’s announcements was the new format to be applied to eight events. The Big Blind Ante is a new take on traditional antes, wherein the player in the big blind will post an ante that is equal to the amount of that big blind. That will take the place of each player posting an ante. The ante portion of that mandatory bet is put into the pot and not in play, though the blinds remain in play as usual.
The thought behind the new format, according to WSOP.com’s Editor-in-Chief Seth Palansky, is that it eradicates confusion that often arises when every player must ante for each hand. Players will not have to spend time disputing if they anted or not, and dealers will not have to monitor the antes. The WSOP asserts it will save time, allowing play to move faster and more smoothly.
WSOP Circuit players have tried the format at some of the tournaments on the traveling series over the past several months, and it worked well and proved popular enough to include it in the summer WSOP. The Big Blind Ante format will be applied to two of the Daily Deepstacks (4pm $200 buy-in and 10pm $150 buy-in), some of the mega satellites, and the $25K buy-in (8pm Fridays) and $50K (8pm Sundays) weekend high-stakes tournaments set to take place in the King’s Lounge.
As for the bracelet events that will offer the Big Blind Ante format, they cover the spectrum of buy-ins as follows:
Event 5: $100,000 NLHE High RollerEvent 13: $1,500 NLHEEvent 20: $5,000 NLHEEvent 45: $1,000 NLHE w/30-minute levelsEvent 54: $3,000 NLHEEvent 74: $10,000 Six-Handed NLHEEvent 77: $50,000 NLHE High RollerEvent 78: $1 million NLHE Big One for One Drop
Players can also start planning for their follow-up trips after the summer, as WSOP Europe is now set for October 11 to November 2. The series will return to last year’s venue, King’s Casino Rozvadov in the Czech Republic.
There will be 10 gold bracelet events over the course of several weeks, in addition to cash games and daily non-bracelet tournaments. The series has yet to be finalized, but there will likely be plenty of action in the poker room with more than 200 tables.
It also seems that King’s Casino is going to be the home of the annual WSOP Europe for the foreseeable future. Casino owner Leon Tsoukernik mentioned it, as did WSOP Executive Director Ty Stewart, who said: “King’s Casino has been a terrific host and with their expansion complete, we’re pleased to commit to holding WSOP Europe annually each October in Rozvadov.”
