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world series of poker

World Series of Poker Asia-Pacific to Launch in 2013, Offer Five Bracelets


The WSOP is making its way down under.

On Monday the World Series of Poker, in a partnership with the Crown Casino, announced the launching of the WSOP Asia-Pacific. The latest expansion of the WSOP brand is set to begin in April of 2013 and will offer five bracelet events.

Rumors of the partnership were running rampant earlier this year as WSOP Executive Director Ty Stewart was spotted at the Crown Casino during the Aussie Millions. A few months later, the event is inked and ready to go. Says Ty:

“Our goal is to establish the worldwide grand slam of poker and use our platform to elevate the game through a series of major championships.”

This is, as far as we can remember, the first time the WSOP has discussed establishing a “grand slam of poker.” The grand slam concept is something many high-profile players have expressed interest in for years. How the WSOP attempts to market and pull this off could be challenging–especially since players revere events like the WPT Championship, EPT Grand Final, and the Crown’s own Aussie Millions. However, having a Grand Slam of events is something identifiable with the public and mainstream media and could certainly raise the profile of the game if pulled off properly.

Read more about the WSOP APACTM here.

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Good for Poker: WPT Celebrates #200 and WSOP Reaches Record Numbers


Despite all the shit, it's been a good looking year for the World Poker Tour and World Series of Poker.

We’re not into writing the equivalent of cyber-fellatio on players and properties, but this can’t go unnoticed: Poker’s two most prestigious entertainment brands both achieved surprising milestones on Sunday.

First, the World Poker Tour celebrated its 200th episode on Sunday. Huge milestone for the company, especially when they were hemorrhaging money in epic proportions just a few years ago. Since then, PartyGaming acquired the company and has righted the ship. This season the WPT enhanced its broadcast, bringing Kimberly Lansing on air, introducing the Royal Flush Girls and Tony Dunst to the program, and continuing to bang out top notch programming (as well as the best online tournament reporting in the biz).

And on the World Series of Poker front, 2011 saw record numbers, capped off with the Main Event logging an unexpectedly high 6,865 total entrants. Participation for the year was up 3.7% with over 75,000 total entrants.

Given the general toxic air among the industry right now and shitstorm created by The Events of 4/15TM, we can’t let these two achievements go unnoticed. If legislation on the regulatory front drags out–and drags down participation and ratings along with it–then we don’t expect 2012 to be so rosy for either property–but that doesn’t diminish what the WPT and WSOP have accomplished this year.

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WSOP Announces Made-for-TV Rematches of Heads-Up Battles


Payback is a bitch, Johnny Chan.

Have to hand it to the poker world for coming up with some innovative TV concepts recently.

It started last year with the PokerStars Big Game. Then last month, Full Tilt introduced the ONYX Cup. And today, the World Series of Poker announced a made-for-TV program pitting past Main Event heads-up matches against each other once again.

The first battle is between Chris Moneymaker and Sammy Farha. Recreating the 2003 WSOP Main Event final table, Moneymaker and Farha will compete in a best out of three rematch. Game one will have them compete with their same starting stacks. Game two will reverse the stacks. And game three will be at even stacks.

Then, the 1989 Main Event gets revisited, as Johnny Chan will go up against Phil Hellmuth in a single match with even stacks.

Finally, fans get to vote on a third (re)match between the following:

- Johnny Chan vs. Erik Seidel – i.e. the shoe-in
- Greg Raymer vs. David Williams
- Jamie Gold vs. Paul Wascika
- Duhamel vs. John Racener

The rematches will air on ESPN on July 26, 2011.

Read more about the rematches here. To vote [for Chan vs. Seidel] go to the WSOP Facebook page here.

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2011 WSOP Schedule and Dates Announced


We'll get to see the likes of Sara Underwood (and others) at the WSOP beginning May 31, 2011.

It was announced today that the 2011 World Series of Poker (WSOP) will take place from Tuesday, May 31, 2011 through Tuesday, July 19, 2011.

The first tournament begins the day after Memorial Day and the 2011 WSOP Main Event will begin on Thursday, July 7th (with four scheduled Day 1′s).

Ending any speculation to the contrary, the WSOP will once again be held in the Convention Center of the Rio.

Also announced is a new provision where play will be stopped after 10 levels have been completed for every tournament.

The full tourney scheduled will be released in January.

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Jack Links Beef Jerky Will Remain the Juiciest Jerky at the WSOP Through 2012


In our opinion, Jack Links Beef Jerky is the 226! of poker advertisers.

Ok, if any press release deserved the 226! treatment, it’s this one.

Jack Links Beef Jerky will remain a “presenting” sponsor at the World Series of Poker through 2012. This is huge news for the industry, as it shows that poker is a viable option to promote your brand to mainstream advertisers allows for us to post pictures of the back-rear portion of hot girls standing by the Jack Links signage for at least two more years.

Says WSOP VP Ty Stewart in the following copy & paste from the press release job:

“This remains a great fit between two category-leading brands…We couldn’t ask for a better organization to be our lead sponsor*. We love being with a market dominator that shares our sense of fun and irreverence.”

The release goes on to say that “Jack Link’s, the No. 1 U.S. brand of beef jerky and the fastest-growing meat snack manufacturer worldwide, leads the nearly $3 billion meat snack category,” to which we giggled twice at the usage of the words “meat snack.” Let’s just say we’ve offered a “meat snack” to the ladies on more than a few occasions.

In all seriousness, read more about the partnership (file this under Good for PokerTM) here. See more reasons why Jack Links Beef Jerky is the tastiest jerky around here, here, and here.

* Except maybe Budweiser, Coca Cola, McDonalds, IBM, or Cici’s Pizza where you can get an all you can eat buffet for just $3.99…$3.99!…go all-in at Cici’s Pizza!

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