The Wait is Over, the WSOP 2024 Starts Today

In mid-February Caesar’s Entertainment announced the schedule for the 55th Annual World Series of Poker, to take place in the summer of 2024 at the linked venues of the Horseshoe and Paris casinos at the very heart of the Las Vegas Strip. This will be the third year that the world’s most prestigious series in live poker will be held here, having departed the Rio in 2021 where the WSOP was held since 20005, when it left its original downtown venue Binions. 

The February announcement revealed that there will be 99 WSOP gold winners bracelets up for grabs at this year’s series, with a schedule that really does cater for almost every bankroll. The cheapest bracelet tournament to enter is the $300 Gladiators of Poker, a marquee event that will satisfy the recreational weekend crowd. At the other end of the poker supremacy spectrum, high rollers also have plenty to get their teeth into, with the $250,000 Super High Roller being the tastiest morsel to tuck into.

Although the schedule was revealed in February, the World Series of Poker sometimes leaves other key announcements until closer to the start of the series and this year was no exception on that front. Just a few days before the cards start flying in Vegas, some changes were announced, to the payout structures and Player of the Year race.

The $10,000 Championship Main Event is still well away from even appearing on the horizon, as it does not begin until July 3rd, but the action kicks-off on Tuesday 28th May, with WSOP bracelet event #1, the $5,000 Champions Reunion No Limit Hold’em Freezeout and the bracelet event #2, the traditional $500 Casino Employees No Limit Hold’em. 

The $5,000 Champions Reunion event is a new addition to the WSOP schedule and all living former WSOP Main Event champions are eligible to take their seats for free. The tournament is not restricted, anyone can enter and there are special prizes, as anyone who eliminates a former champion will receive a free entry into the WSOP Main Event.

There are a total of eleven bracelets to be won during the first week of the series. This includes the first marquee event of the 2024 WSOP, the $1,000 Mystery Millions, which starts on Thursday 30th May with the first of four starting flights. Most WSOP events don’t have guarantees, but the Mystery Millions is one of the few that does, as it has $1m guaranteed for 1st place and $1m guaranteed for the biggest mystery bounty.

Other first week highlights include the $25,000 No Limit Hold’em Heads-Up Championship, while Omaha aficionados are well catered for with one regular PLO event and two PLO8 (Pot Limit Omaha HI LO 8 or Better) tournaments, one of which is the $10,000 Championship version of the format.

The payout structure of World Series of Poker events has been altered, to ensure that minimum cashes are at least double the buy-in of each event. The restructuring of the prize pool means that event winners will take home slightly less than they would in 2023.

The other significant change is to the WSOP Player of the Year (POY) race. In previous years all events counted towards the leaderboard, including results in WSOP Online events. However this year new rules have been added, stipulating:

The winner of the POY receives a 2025 Main Event seat, a trophy and will have a banner erected with their name and photo at the venue.

Live satellites specifically into the Main Event do not take place until a few days before the tournament starts, however there are daily satellites that award casino credit. Winning one of these won’t be enough to buy-into the Main Event, but players can accumulate credit by winning more than one of these, enabling any committed players to choose this a s a route into the main event. 

Casino credit satellites take place three times a day:

Players who live in countries where GG Poker is available have the option to try to qualify online. The world’s largest online poker site is committed to sending 1,000 players to the main event as part of its Road to Vegas promotion. With just over a month left for WSOP Main Event satellites to run at GG Poker, they still need close to 300 further qualifiers to hit their target. 

Satellites are running daily at either $250, $525 or $1,200 buy-ins and are awarding packages valued at $12,000 which include $1,000 for travel expenses and $1,000 towards hotel accommodation as well as the entry into the $10,000 WSOP Main Event.

Sunday is the best day to try to  qualify, with 10-15 packages guaranteed in Main Event Mania. Online satellites to the WSOP also use the landmark method, as do live satellites at the Horseshoe & Paris Casinos.