If You've Always Wanted To Play A WSOP Event This Is A Great Year To Do It As They Now Have 25 Events That Are $1,000 Or Less

WSOP - The WSOP “Value Menu” has been finalized for the 2020 World Series of Poker (WSOP), set to run from May 26 to July 15, 2020 at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, with the opening event – a $1,000 buy-in Freezeout No-Limit Hold’em scheduled to christen the WSOP at 11am on Wed., May 27. 

The freezeout format -- allowing only one entry -- is part of a concerted effort by the WSOP in 2020.  The opening event, plus at least one No-Limit Hold’em event a week in this format is planned for the rest of the series.  The WSOP is committed to keeping a significant portion of the schedule utilizing the freezeout format. 

As the modern day “something for everyone” poker festival continues to evolve, the latest track of events to gain popularity is the $1,000 and under buy-in events, driving new players to the WSOP while offering large prize pools.

One of the questions about poker I get a lot is "how do I get better? What books should I read or sites should I use?" We answered that question on Episode 31 of Cracking Aces which is packed with beginner information, and we'll do more of that type of episode in the future.

But another question I get a lot of is in the vein of "I've never played the WSOP and want to try this year, what should I play?". Well, here is your answer- there are a TON of options. This year there are 25 bracelet events being run at the RIO that are $1k and under. Think about this- there were 25 events total in the year 2000, and this year there are 25 that are $1k and under alone. 

Here's the schedule:

If you had to pick one to play, I'd play the Big 50. That's the one I made a deep-ish run in last year, finishing 529th out of more than 20,000 runners. It was a ton of fun to play and I had a huge stack for a lot of it until my ultimate demise 

The Big 50 has an awesome structure, lively tables, and a lot of money for first. It's also over MDW so you can play it taking minimal amount of time off work. 

Another good one to play is the Crazy 888. It's $888 to play, has $888,888 for first place, and is only 8 handed so you see more hands/hour. Another good structure, but the 30 minute levels make it a bit more turbo-y if you don't like to play super deep stacked the entire time.

We've had the discussion a lot about if the prestige of a bracelet has been minimized because of how many evens there are now. There were 90 events last year, and will probably be 100 this year. The answer is obviously yes, but also, who really cares? Winning a bracelet in a 10,000 field is still cool, and besides, poker is about the money anyway.

So hey, if you have decided "this is the year I go to Vegas and play a WSOP event", go for it. Do it up. There will also be all the $1500 NL events, the mixed games, and of course your $5ks and $10ks. I've played poker tournaments in a bunch of places, but nothing matches the feeling of sitting down at the WSOP. I can't recommend it enough if it's on your bucket list. Even if it's not the Main, all the events just feel different. If you have the money saved, I say go for it.

And definitely listen to Cracking Aces to get you in the mood. We just recorded episode 36 today and it's one of my favorites yet. It'll drop tonight, but in the mean time you can subscribe and catch up on old ones

Hope to see you guys in Vegas this Summer. Oh and at Borgata next week. More on that later though.