Main Event Date for 2020 World Series of Poker Announced

By Jerry Smith Staff Writer Updated: 12/10/2019

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The main event of WSOP, with a buy-in of $10,000, is the most anticipated event, Photo by Pixabay

Organizers of the World Series of Poker have announced the schedule for the 2020 edition of the poker tournament, which is scheduled to run from May 26 to July 15, for a total of 51 days. The main event, which will start on July 1, will have a buy-in of $10,000.

The most prestigious and biggest poker tournaments in the world, World Series of Poker 2020, will be held at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino, located just west of the Las Vegas Strip behind Caesars Palace. Even though Rio is no longer officially owned by Caesars, the new company gave operational permission to Caesars for the next two to three years, which means that there is no need for a change in venue for the tournament next year.

Ty Stewart, Executive Director of World Series of Poker, expressed the excitement of his team for the new year’s tournament.

Stewart said:

Summer can’t come fast enough, and we look forward to welcoming poker players from all over the globe back to the Rio in Las Vegas to award gold bracelets and hundreds of millions of dollars.

More details on the main event

The main event of the tournament will last for two weeks, starting from July 1 in 2020. The buy-in will be $10,000, and the tournament is scheduled to have three starting flights, which will start on July 1 till July 3.

If a player makes it through Day 1a and 1b, they can carry on to July 4, where they can continue their main event journey. July 4 is marked as Day 2ab. Players from Day 1c will continue on July 5, which is marked as Day 2c. Then, all of the remaining players from the starting fields will come together on July 6 and combine officially, with the final table expected to be reached on July 10. After a day off, the remaining players will return to the table for the final time on July 12, which will be played till July 14.

The main event in 2019 saw 8,569 unique entries in the freezeout format, which was the second-largest field in the tournament’s history. Apart from the main event date announcement, it was also revealed that the $500 Big 50 would start on May 27 with a buy-in of $500. With 50,000 starting chips, levels will last for 50 minutes. This is one of the most highly anticipated events other than the main event.

There is no date yet for the remaining events as they are still waiting for regulatory approval. The full schedule of the tournament is expected to be released in the first quarter of 2020.

No change in venue for 2020

Last week, Caesars Entertainment formally sold the Rio resort to Eldorado Resorts for $516.3 million. Moreover, Caesars Entertainment is in the process of being acquired by Eldorado Resorts for $17.3 billion.

However, despite the change in ownership, WSOP will not change its venue for the tournament. This is because Caesars will continue operating the Rio for the next two to three years through a $45 million annual leaseback.

Commenting on this, Seth Palansky, who is the VP of Communications at Caesars, said that the Rio is their home for now and that it “continues to be a very good situation” for them.