Notes From World Series of Poker TeleconferenceWith Series Right Around the Bend, Harrah's Says It's Ready |
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The bigwigs of the World Series of Poker held a conference call yesterday morning to check in with the world about the quickly approaching big daddy of all poker tournaments. The 55-bracelet 2007 WSOP runs from June 1 to July 17.
"We're thrilled that we're going to be in the tournament business with you shortly." said WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack.
The 45-minute call outlined several changes to this year's WSOP. The changes ranged from the number of starting chips in the events to how the dealers will be trained so as not to have a repeat of last year when several thousand extra chips were discovered to be in play during the main event (Harrah's said the chips mistakenly entered play while changing out the smaller-denomination chips).
This year, about 300 Las Vegas-based dealers will be trained and certified in all the games that are scheduled to be played this year. The Las Vegans will handle most of the dealing duties at the WSOP, while the Harrah's dealers who come in from properties outside of Vegas will be used to fill their shifts at Harrah's other Las Vegas properties.
Another change that players will notice is Harrah's decided to double the number of starting chips this year. That means instead of $1,000 in starting chips in the $1,000 events, they'll start with $2,000 in chips to give players more play. According to a representative of the WSOP's publicity firm, this will affect all the events.
A wing will also be built next to the Amazon room to accommodate more tables and players. The total amount of tables used for tournament play will be 258.
Officials also announced that they're making plans to host 10,000 players for the main event (8,773 people played in it last year). Pollack wanted to be clear that the event won't be capped at 10,000, but that's basically the maximum number of players Harrah's is planning for.
On the business side of the WSOP, officials warned that anyone who is using the WSOP trademark without permission will be aggressively pursued and forced to stop. All sports leagues aggressively protect their copyrights and trademarks, and now the WSOP will do the same.
"One thing for certain, it will be enforced this year," Pollack said.
Officials also said that they will not accept entries from poker sites, which was the same policy as last year. To get around this, sites simply gave its online qualifiers cash to registers for the events.
Please click here to view the complete schedule for the 2007 WSOP.
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