For some, it feels like the beginning of summer camp. For others, it is more akin to Christmas. But the fact remains that the World Series of Poker is the preeminent poker tournament festival in the history of the game. Tuesday marks the start of the 56th annual rendition of the tournament, and there is plenty of action to whet the appetites of poker players and fans alike.
100 Tournaments over Two Months
Over the next two months, the tournament floors of the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas will serve as the host for the 2025 WSOP. Now in its third year at the two sites, the WSOP has expanded, from the 95 events held in 2023 to 100 this year. The 2025 tournament schedule is also starting with what has been a tradition for the organization, but this year is bringing a new twist.
The $500 Casino Employees Event has been one that has exploded over the years as the WSOP looked to honor those who work in the industry. This year, under the ownership of NSUS Group (the owners of GGPoker), the rules for entry into the tournament have been expanded. Instead of being limited to simply those employed by casino entities, in 2025, GGPoker decided that ANYONE involved in the gaming world could participate in the tournament.
This change in the rules has opened the doors for professional players who have any connection to the industry (a vlog, blog, stream, or other outlet) to be able to step into an arena that used to be dedicated to those who work in the casinos of the world. In theory, this would allow someone like Daniel Negreanu, who has won eight bracelets, or Phil Hellmuth, who has written about the game extensively, to be eligible to play on what was traditionally a ground that was not open to pros.
Additionally, the Casino Employees Event was traditionally a freezeout tournament. In bending to the will of the players (supposedly), the WSOP has embraced the “re-entry” frenzy that has seized the poker world. Players who step into the Casino Employees Event in 2025 will, if they are eliminated, have the option of reentering the tournament for another $500 entry. This is something that will be available for EVERY event, save for the $10,000 No Limit Hold’em World Championship (the Main Event), which continues to be in a freezeout format.
High Roller Tournaments and “Tentpoles”
The first week of the WSOP will also be marked by the “tentpole” events and High Roller action.
Tomorrow will mark the beginning of one of the “tentpole” tournaments, one that features multiple-day Ones to build its humongous fields (a tentpole tournament, in this case, is one that is meant to draw in a huge crowd to promote the remainder of the tournaments). Event #1, the $1000 No Limit Hold’em Mystery Millions, will begin at noon on Tuesday with the first of its five-Day Ones of action.
The Mystery Millions features two $1,000,000 bounties (in addition to other cash prizes) that will be handed out at some point after the tournament reaches Day Two. Additionally, the players who make the final table will battle it out for a million-dollar first-place prize, in addition to the WSOP bracelet that will be awarded to the victor. This is another intriguing change in the game, the advent of “mystery bounty” tournaments, where players who knock out an opponent get the opportunity to pick from a basket of envelopes. These envelopes, which contain different monetary amounts as a reward, add another level of intrigue for players in the tournament.
The first weekend of the 2025 WSOP brings an event where the players are not concerned about bounties to make a massive amount of money. Friday marks the start of the $25,000 Heads-Up No Limit Hold’em World Championship, a tournament that draws only the crème of the game to the felt (64 players), in a classic NCAA bracket style event. In 2024, there was a huge surprise as Darius Samual, risking half his bankroll, defeated veteran pro Faraz Jaka to capture the bracelet and the first-place prize of $500,000.
There will be plenty of action to keep up with, all of which will be streamed through PokerGO for the run of the 2025 WSOP. It all gets started on Tuesday as poker’s denizens descend on Las Vegas for their yearly reunion to celebrate the game of poker.
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