The World Series of Poker is back! After WSOP 2024 was cancelled last year, fans have been eagerly awaiting the arrival of the new season. Finally, after a painstakingly long time, the WSOP has now been confirmed for 2024. This will be the 52nd edition of the event. Some celebrations have already begun, with online tournaments commencing on July 1st.
The official season will start on the 30th of September and last until November 23rd, giving fans over a month’s worth of new content to enjoy. Taking place in the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, it looks like the 2024 WSOP is going to be the biggest one yet. Here are some of the reasons why we think that is:
Long-Awaited
The 51st edition of the World Series of Poker was cancelled last year, unfortunately. Some 101 bracelet events had originally been on the schedule, which was supposed to begin on May 26th, 2024. Luckily, players and fans didn’t miss out entirely. An online WSOP was hosted by dedicated websites like GGPoker.co.uk. Some 85 online tournaments were held in total. In the meantime, the main event – the $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em – took place over the internet.
That was until the final match, which was held live at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino for American players and the King’s Casino in Rozvadov for international players. Despite the WSOP team successfully managing to find a way to still host the competition, nothing quite beats the real thing. As such, players and fans are more eager than ever before to attend the 2024 WSOP season.
Best of Both Worlds
If WSOP 2024 proved anything, it is the power of digital eventing. For 50 years, the World Series of Poker has been held exclusively in physical locations. This has restricted how many people can attend each year. However, the 2024’s season has shown that the tournament can successfully be held through virtual events, too. Rather than casting this innovation aside in favour of physical eventing, the WSOP organisation team for 2024 has decided to bring together the best of both worlds. Now, players and fans can either attend tournaments by going to Las Vegas – or by booking a ticket online for virtual matches. As such, people are no longer limited by location. Players and fans can participate, no matter where they might be across the world. This means that a lot more people will be in attendance, thereby making WSOP 2024 one of the biggest editions of the series yet.
The ability to adapt to new situations is another thing that makes this series great and loved. Having an ability like this, even in these grim times of lockdowns and social distancing, is something to be remembered and mentioned for a long time. Who knows this format of the series might even catch on after all of this pandemic madness comes to an end. It would be interesting to see will it hold on and will it be accepted by the players and the fans of the WSOP series.
New Tournaments
It seems like the team behind the World Series of Poker is taking things up a notch for this year’s edition. Not only are they including both online and in-person events, but also introducing new tournaments altogether. Most notable is the ‘Reunion’ match. Recognising that people have been eagerly awaiting the return of WSOP after last year’s disappointing cancellation, the events team have come up with this brilliant tournament.
With a pool size of $5 million and up to 10,000 participants allowed to enter, the Reunion is certainly a welcome surprise. Players need to cough up $500 if they wish to buy-in. In addition to this, WSOP 2024 is adding a Flip and Go tournament. Players can buy-in with $1000 for this fast-paced addition to the line-up. Finally, a Poker Hall of Fame Bounty has also been scheduled for WSOP 2024. All living members of the Poker Hall of Fame are going to participate in this thrilling tournament.
New hardware
One of the most important things in WSOP is bracelet hunting. This year there will be even more chances to hunt down the all-important thing in here and it is competing for the WSOP series bracelets. This year, amongst other novelties, players from all around the world will have 88 opportunities to win this lucrative hardware and become remembered as the first in this big tournament, by some new rules and innovations.
New climate and location change next year
Since another novelty is a time change for WSOP, this means that all participants, that are there in person, of course, will enjoy a somewhat milder climate and weather. Nevada in July gets a bit too hot for everyone’s comfort, but moving the WSOP series to fall means that the weather will be a perfect balance of warmth and breeze with temps rarely exceeding 80 degrees. As for the venue, this is one last Hoorah for The Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino. It has been more than a good home for the WSOP series since 2005 but it is time to move. Rumours are plenty regarding this and most of them are whispering that year 2024 might bring a move of the series to one of the two most mentioned places – Bally’s or Paris.
New TV
Now all of you know that the series has been traditionally televised over and by ESPN. With these changes mentioned above, another one is coming and it is in a form of a new TV home. The WSOP 2024 will be televised by CBS Sports Network. Now, some hardcore fans are accustomed to ESPN and there will be some dissatisfaction but the change might not be that bad of a thing. We just might see a boost in the quality of the production and we might be positively surprised. There is the other side to this coin as well. All of that might be worse, we will simply have to wait and see what ends up being the reality.
These are some of the main reasons why WSOP 2024 is set to be one of the biggest editions of the series yet. History is about to be made this year!
