Changes In The Wind For WSOP 2010

The WSOP has been busy lately thinking up changes designed to keep it firmly at the cutting edge of the industry. Although most proposals have been welcomed, one in particular has caused more debate amongst players than any other, namely dropping the $40,000 No Limit Hold’em Championship from next year’s schedule.
WSOP Communications Director Seth Palansky said:“The $40K was a good event. It was a successful event. But it made sense, because it was the 40th-annual World Series of Poker. That buy-in amount or that event doesn’t really fit when you’re not in your 40th year.”
The $40k buy-in event proved a big success at WSOP 2009, attracting high rollers and the cream of the poker world alike, to produce a 201 field vying for a $1.9 million first prize. With many pros likening the WSOP Main Event as a crap shoot due to the large number of entries involved, there was concern by the organisers that the $40k could detract attention away from its star Main Event.
“It’s just different, because it’s much more out of the reach of the average person,” said Palansky. “We didn’t want it to be ‘the pros’ no-limit hold’em championship’ and ‘here’s the one for everyone else’ (referring to the main event).”
One pro who didn’t agree with Palansky was the 2000 main-event winner Chris Ferguson who also sits on the Players Advisory Council of the WSOP. He believed the $40k was a great event but that there would be no blurring of lines as to who the real world champion would be due to the disparity in prize money between the two events.
Not all changes to WSOP 2010 have been controversial and the introduction of up to six more $1,000 Events is likely to be well received by a public who snapped up entry to this year’s sole $1,000 Hold ‘em event to produce a field of more than 6,000 players.
The controversy regarding this year’s oversubscription on Day 1D of the $10,000 Main Event is something the organisers are keen not to repeat and so are toying with the idea of pre-registering players specific days. This, however, is yet to be confirmed as the WSOP believe the ultimate decision of when to start should still remain in the player’s hands.
Ultimately Palansky stressed that the WSOP venue would remain the same with just a few minor adjustment and improvements, “We can pretty much run with what we did last year, perhaps taking out some events that didn’t have such a good attendance and adjusting the buy-ins on some others,” he said.