 The 2008 World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) announced it will be hosting its event under one roof at the Casino at the Empire, LCI's newest club in the heart of London at Leicester Square.
Now if you are not a poker insider, you may not remember that last year the inaugural World Series of Poker Europe was played at three different London casinos to accommodate all the players. The "under one roof" is just one of the improvements we can expect from the WSOPE now in its second year.
The event to be held from September 19 to October 2, 2008, will feature four bracelet events, which is an addition of one event from last year. Cash games, satellites and more non-bracelet tournaments will also be increased over last year's offerings.
September 19th , 2008 - Event #1 - £1,500 – No-Limit Hold'em Day 1A (3-day event/2 opening days)
September 22nd , 2008 - Event #2 - £2,500 – H.O.R.S.E. (3-day event)
September 24th , 2008 - Event #3 - £5,000 – Pot Limit Omaha (3-day event)
September 27th , 2008 - Event #4 - £10,000 – World Championship No-Limit Hold'em (5-day event)
The final table participants from the WSOP Main Event in Las Vegas, the "November Nine" were all invited and incentivized, we are told. Thus far three have indicated they will travel to London to play: Ivan Demidov, Peter Eastgate and David Rheem.
For full details of the tournaments and other events here.
PartyPoker is proud to announce that the third annual PartyPoker Poker Nations Cup will take place in Cardiff, Wales, between the 7th – 10th April. The team event features line-ups from Germany , Great Britain , Ireland , Sweden , Holland and the United States. The winning team will scoop $100,000 in this unique tournament that sees players pursuing personal and team glory, along with the honour of representing their home nation.
The tournament sees one PartyPoker.com VIP qualifier on each team playing alongside five world class poker professionals from the same participating nations. Each player pays a buy-in of $5,000 making a total prize pool of $280,000 ($100,000 added by PartyPoker). Over six heats, each player will compete once to score points for their team, and individual match winners scoop $20,000 for themselves for their efforts. All six teams will then compete in a “tag” final where each team captain’s judgement is vital, as it is up to them to make tactical substitutions and strategic “time outs.” The size of the team chip stacks for the tag final depend on the points gained by the players in the six heats. The triumphant nation will be the last with a player standing.
 Defending champions Sweden will be again captained by Bo Sehlstedt and feature William Thorsson, Johan Storakers, Mats Rahm and last year’s hero Anders Henriksson. Joining them is an online qualifier with serious form in Johan Ocklind, who locked horns with the likes of Patrik Antonius, Tony G and Ilari Sahamies at the Scandinavian Poker Masters cash game last year. He got to sit down with $50,000 in the shark pool and handled himself admirably after qualifying online at PartyPoker.com.
The British team is captained by Roland de Wolfe and features reigning Poker Million champion Joe Beevers, 2008 Irish Open champion Neil Channing, format specialist Ian Frazer and the inimitable Surinder Sunar. Joining them is qualifier Francis Durbin. Captain for the past two years, Dave “The Devilfish” Ulliott is unavailable as he is in the United States . Ireland make a welcome return to the competition and are captained by legend Padraig Parkinson, joined by fellow Irish poker giant Donnacha O’Dea, 2007 Irish Open winner Marty Smith, WSOP bracelet holder Ciaran O’Leary and 2007 PartyPoker European Open champion Liam Flood. Darren O’Brien joins the team as the qualifier.
Team USA is captained by Robert Williamson III and will feature $12 million 2006 WSOP Main Event winner Jamie Gold, the one and only Freddy Deeb, the iconic Chris ‘Jesus’ Ferguson and Chad Brown . With there being no qualifier from the USA , captain Robert Williamson III has drafted in television host Montel Williams to make his European poker debut. Williams may be better known as a chat show host but he was the leading the WSOP Main Event for a period in 2007.
The German team is captained by Michael Keiner and the former plastic surgeon has moulded together a very strong team. Andreas Krause, one of the top European players last year is a key figure in the line-up as is Benjamin Kang, inaugural PartyPoker German Open winner Sebastian Ruthenberg and WSOP Europe bracelet winner Thomas “Buzzer” Bihl. Thomas Potzal is the qualifier joining this glittering role call of top pros. The Dutch team is captained by Marcel Luske and features Thierry Van der Berg, Eric Van der Berg and Daan Ruiter with Quirijn Van Der Peet the qualifier. Marcel still has one selection to make.
Last year Sweden triumphed over the USA in a rollercoaster tag-final, while the year before there was glory for Great Britain . PartyBets.com make Sweden 3/1 favourites to win again with the USA second favourites at 7/2, Great Britain at 9/2, Ireland at 5/1, Germany at 6/1 and Holland the outsiders at 13/2.
A PartyPoker spokesman said:
“The array of talent on display for the 2008 PartyPoker Poker Nations Cup is brilliant. Sweden have to be favourites to retain their title as their line-up of pros is unchanged and are used to the format and they are arguably strengthened by their online qualifier representative. That said, the USA will take some stopping with the likes of Gold, Ferguson Deeb and Brown on board while Great Britain boasts so many form players in their team. Ireland is a bit of a wildcard but there is little doubt that they have strength in depth in their side while Germany appear much stronger than previous years. The Dutch side led by Marcel have to be seen as the underdogs – the names don’t jump out as much at you as they do with the other line-ups.”
 The second year of the World Series of Poker of Europe will not include an expansion beyond the size, scope or location of last year's inaugural tournament. London will again be the location for the WSOPE and the tournaments will again be shared between the same three casinos: St. James (Fifty), Leicester Square (The Casino at the Empire) and Marble Arch (Sportsman).
The 2008 World Series of Poker Europe will be held from September 19th to October 1st, 2008 in London, England. Last year the WSOPE consisted of three events in same number of days: a HORSE tournament, a Pot Limit Omaha event and the Championship No Limit Hold'em tournament. We should expect a similar schedule this year.
 When the 2008 World Series of Poker schedule was announced for May 30-July 16th of next year, there was also a mention of two additional pre-tournament events.
"The Amazon Room will open four days earlier to allow for early registration and two special events."
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The first of those events was announced today by the World Poker Association.
The World Poker Association will get ahead of the crowd at the 2008 World Series of Poker with the WPA Superb Satellite Tournament for its members. The satellite will take place May 29th at the Rio All Suites Hotel and Casino-one day before the official opening of the WSOP. It is expected to create a prize pool that will produce multiple seats into the main event of the 2008 WSOP.
The one day WPA hosted tournament is expected to draw our leading pros as well as a large number of associate members. If you want a chance to rub elbows with the very best, and network with colleagues that share your quest for the highest level of professionalism in poker tournament competition, the WPA Superb Satellite Tournament is the place to be-Thursday, May 29, 2008.
Join the WPA as a pro or as an associate member and be part of the WPA's Superb Satellite Tournament at the Rio May 29th.
The WPA is also exploring additional events at the Rio around the time of the WPA Superb Satellite Tournament. So the "early events" at the Series this year may include more surprises like perhaps a Tournament of Champions that was absent from the WSOP in 2007 or perhaps the Ante Up for Africa charity event that is also rumored to be on the 2008 WSOP schedule.
The complete World Series of Poker Schedule for 2008 can be found in the post immediately below this one.
Let's take a look at how the WSOP staff has changed and improved the schedule of events for 2008. As in 2007, there will be 55 events in the WSOP (plus two "Special" events, yet to be announced in the days preceding Event #1).
No Limit Hold'em: There will be 16 pure No Limit Hold'em events; that is fewer than last year. But NLHE will also appear in 1 Shootout event, 1 Heads Up tournament, 3 six-handed events, 3 mixed limit and no-limit tournaments, both the Ladies and the Seniors events. Oh and two $1,000 NLHE events with rebuys.
Limit Hold'em: The previously mentioned 3 mixed Hold'em tournaments and 4 Limit only events, including one shootout and as one of five games in the 3 HORSE tournaments.
Pot Limit Hold'em: 3 events.
Omaha: 4 Pot Limit Omaha, 1 Pot Limit Omaha 8 or better, 3 Omaha 8 or better, 1 Omaha 8 and Stud 8, 1 Pot Limit Hold'em and Pot Limit Omaha (several of these events are rebuys).
Stud: 2 Stud and 2 Stud 8 or better.
Deuce to Seven Lowball: 2 events
HORSE: 3 tournaments
Razz: 1 event
The buy-ins have also taken some adjustments for 2008, there will be 8 Championship events at $10,000, including the Main Event. Also in the buy-in mix are:
21 $1,5000 tournaments
7 at $5,000
2 at $3,000
5 at $2,500
6 at $2,000
4 at $1,000 (2 rebuy events, the Seniors and the Ladies)
1 at $500 (Casino employees event)
1 at $50,000 (Championship HORSE)
All events will be three day events this year except for the Main Event (13 days), the $50K HORSE (5 days), one 4 day event (Event #2, the first $1,500 NLHE event), one scheduled 2 day event (Limit Hold'em Shootout, which will be changed to a three day).
 Harrah's has released the schedule for the 2008 World Series of Poker. Below is the bare bones schedule for the 55 event Series. I will follow this post with a statistical analysis of the new schedule and third post on how the WSOP staff are changing the organization and structure of the Series through the use of the event schedule.
Fri, May 30th 12:00:00 PM 3-Day Event
World Championship Pot-Limit Hold'em (Event 1)
No Rebuy/Add-ons $10,000
Sat, May 31st 12:00:00 PM 4-Day Event
No-Limit Hold'em (Event 2)
No Rebuy/Add-ons $1,500
Mon, Jun 2nd 12:00:00 PM 3-Day Event
Pot-Limit Hold'em (Event 3)
No Rebuy/Add-ons $1,500
Mon, Jun 2nd 5:00:00 PM 3-Day Event
Mixed Hold'em (Limit/No-Limit) (Event 4)
No Rebuy/Add-ons $5,000
 Harrah’s Entertainment announced today that the 39th annual World Series of Poker will be held from May 30 through July 17, 2008; once again at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.
“The team is still hard at work on the schedule of events for next year, but we’ve received so many requests for the dates that we decided to announce them now,”
. . . Jeffrey Pollack, WSOP Commissioner.
One good piece of news to shorten those early event registration lines:
“We’ll actually open the WSOP tournament room the week of May 26th for two special events, this ‘soft opening’ will give players a chance to register early and avoid the lines we had last year during opening weekend.”
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