The World Series of Poker has begun at the Rio casino in Las Vegas, setting off 54 straight days of poker tournament play.
Combined prize pools for all events are expected to top $200 million.
Changes in this year’s tournaments include no firm “shot clock” and the crowning of the tournament’s main event champion in July—rather than in the “November Nine” final table employed in the last several years.
Officials expect participation to be at or around the record 107,833 who played during last year’s tournament, Seth Palansky, the tournament’s spokesman told the Associated Press.
“It’s very hard to predict, but all signs are optimistic,” he said.
The change in the tournament’s clock-rule change is actually designed to speed up of the game. Officials are encouraging players and tournament directors to monitor the pace of play and have staff prompt a countdown when necessary.
“It’s going to be situations based, there’s no hard and fast,” Palansky said. “But the best way to say it is habitual stallers will be forced to act quicker. That’s really the goal, getting habitual stallers to act quickly.”
The biggest change is the elimination of the November Nine, which delayed crowning of a main event champion for several months. The delay was to allow for tape-delayed telecasts of the events.
Under a new deal with ESPN, the network will carry an estimated 40 hours of live coverage—tape delayed by only 30 minutes. The cable network will also air more than 100 hours of original packaged show every year. Any coverage not aired by ESPN will be streamed exclusively through Poker Central’s digital channels, according to the AP.
