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World Series of Poker Schedule

The World Series of Poker schedule changes each year to better suit the needs of modern players, but there are a few constants.

First of all, the final event on the WSOP schedule is always the World Series of Poker Main Event. This is to ensure that every player can come into the event with minimal distractions from other tourneys and time constraints.

Another standard event is the casino employees tournament that kicks off the WSOP each year and gives the many casino employees who keep the action moving in Vegas during the World Series of Poker a chance to play.

Recent changes to the World Series of Poker schedule have seen more No Limit Hold'em tournaments with low buy-ins, as well as a move to scheduling concurrent tournaments in a way that gives players an opportunity to contend multiple events at once.

Expect the WSOP schedule to be tweaked over the next few years to better accommodate players like Tom Dwan - the kind that want the ridiculous kind of action that playing in simultaneous live tournaments involves.

World Series of Poker Main Event

While the various WSOP Championship events are important, the World Series of Poker Main Event is absolutely the most important event on the poker calendar each year. Costing a buy-in of $10,000 to enter and offering millions in prize money every year, the WSOP Main Event is big enough that the prize money from a win has been capable of catapulting players into the top spots of the all-time tournament money list.

The World Series of Poker Main Event takes several days just to play through the first tournament day due to the huge number of entrants. The game is No Limit Texas Hold'em and even the best poker pros can struggle to get through this first cull of players if the cards aren't going their way. It is an endurance event, for the most part, as players must make the right decisions for days on end before they are even close to hitting the money.

If you are considering entering the WSOP Main Event, we suggest you get in a great deal of practice and make sure you have signed up to one of the poker rooms we recommend in our review pages.

World Series of Poker November Nine

A recent feature of the World Series of Poker Main Event is the November Nine. Instead of playing the final table immediately after the field has been narrowed down to the last nine players, the WSOP now delays the playing of the final table until November.

This is a controversial change, but it does have the benefit of building up the eventual WSOP Main Event winner, as well as all the other players at the table. A lot of players at the final table these days are unknowns and it helps the poker media to have some time to learn about the stories behind their WSOP runs. Regardless of whether the World Series of Poker November Nine rule perverts the purity of the tournament as a whole, it does make for much more interesting viewing.

World Series of Poker Satellites

World Series of Poker satellites are responsible for the huge boom in WSOP Main Event entrants in recent years. Every poker site worth its salt runs these WSOP satellite tournaments in the lead up to the event each year, and the biggest poker sites send hundreds of players.

Many online poker rooms even run step tournaments into the World Series of Poker. These can start as freerolls, with players winning an entry into a higher buy-in satellite with each victory. After a while, that player who came in on a freeroll can end up playing in World Series of Poker satellites that offer seats into the Main Event - that's a free $10,000 buy-in if they win! For beginning players who want to take a shot at glory, we recommend you enter the World Series of Poker satellites run by the trusted poker sites in our review pages.