This year the 48th annual WSOP (World Series of Poker) will be hitting Las Vegas’s Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino once again from May 30th – July 17th. Hopefully you’ll be able to make it down, but if it’s a little out of your price range, you might be wondering where else you can find World Series of Poker events across the world this year. Today we take a look at where you’ll find the alternative poker action around the world…
Sadly not everyone can give up the time and money required to participate in the WSOP in Las Vegas. For this exact reason, there are the World Series of Poker Circuit events. These take place across the USA, in locations including Florida, Mississippi, Oklahoma, New Jersey, Los Angeles, North Carolina, Maryland, Wisconsin and Chicago. In Europe, there will be events held in Italy, Germany, Czech Republic, and France, and elsewhere, you’ll be able to compete in Punta del Este in Uruguay, and St Maarten in the Caribbean.
These events kick off in early August of every year, and come to a conclusion the following summer at the $1,000,000 Global Casino Championship, the winner of which receives his very own WSOP bracelet. These circuit events are incredibly popular with poker players around the world as they give players the chance to get stuck in to the WSOP experience at a far more affordable rate.
In terms of the structure of these circuit events, usually each fixture features 12 events over the course of 12 days in each location. The main event of each is usually a $1,675 buy-in No Limit Hold’em. Typically the buy-in for these circuit events ranges from just $365 – $5,300, and the victorious layer will receive their very own WSOP gold ring.
This year will be the 13th year that these Circuit Events have been operating, and things have come a long way since the inaugural year back in 2004-2005. Back then there were just five stops on the circuit – Las Vegas, San Diego, New Orleans, Lake Tahoe and Atlantic City. Nowadays there are 22 stops in the US alone, and when added to the international destinations, this means the WSOP Circuit has more entrants than the Las Vegas event itself.
With so many opportunities to get involved, perhaps this year should be the year you try your luck on the World Series of Poker Circuit.
