It’s time to start booking those flights and making hotel reservations for a summer trip to Sin City now that the World Series of Poker has (finally!) dropped its complete schedule for the 2024 WSOP. As expected, it’s a sprawling seven-week schedule that brings back many of last year’s marquee and Championship events with buy-ins ranging from $300 (Gladiators of Poker) to $250,000 (Super High Roller). Our editorial staff gave the 99-event live schedule the once over and provided some key takeaways as to the winners and losers of the latest lineup of WSOP bracelet events.
Winners: PLO Fans
With more than 20 different events featuring some version of Pot Limit Omaha on the 2024 WSOP Schedule, fans of “the great game” have more opportunities than ever before to try to secure a gold bracelet this summer. The range of buy-in options for PLO events is vast as well, going from as small as $600 to as large as $50,000.
The variety of formats further expands the spectrum. There are multiple four-card Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Lo tournaments. After debuting as a $1,500 event on the 2023 WSOP schedule, the first ever $10,000 Big O (five-card PLO Hi-Lo) Championship debuts as part of the 2024 schedule. There’s even a $1,000 PLO Mystery Bounty, making it three total Mystery Bounty events at the 2024 WSOP. For those who like to splash around, there’s also a double board, bomb pot, half No Limit Hold’em, half Pot Limit Omaha bracelet event.
It wasn’t all additions for the PLO crowd. The $5K and $1,500 half No Limit Hold’em/half Pot Limit Omaha events have fallen off the format for 2024, although there is still a $600 edition of that game. But by and large, the WSOP schedule has never included side a strong selection of PLO events.
Losers: Short Deck
When Short Deck was introduced to the WSOP schedule back in 2019 it was pretty quickly crowned poker’s “next big thing.” Played with a 36-card deck where all the low cards are discarded, the game promised more action, bigger pots, and an evolved strategy…plus all the high rollers in Macau were in love with it.
For the past four summers in Las Vegas, Short Deck, specifically a $10K Short Deck Championship, found its way on the WSOP menu of events. It felt like it was moving away from being a fun diversion event into a staple that players could count on. Last year, there was a $1,500 buy-in version that drew 363 runners, and the $10K Short Deck Championship pulled 106 entries.
But with entries essentially remaining flat in the $10K Short Deck Championship (there was a dip to 66 runners in the 2021 Fall WSOP, won by Chance Kornuth) it was simply cut from this year’s lineup. Perhaps WSOP officials felt like the game’s potential never really took hold in the summer or perhaps they felt like there were better or easier ways to make rake. Whatever the reason, Short Deck has been relegated this year and the Short Deck pros will need to make their way to a future Triton event to capture a trophy in this game.
Winners: Weekend Warriors & Recreational Players
If there’s one thing that the World Series of Poker has continually improved on over the past decade or so it’s knowing how to cater to its largest customer base – recreational players with the dream of hitting a big score. Once again, this year promises big fields with bigger paydays at the end for those who navigate the minefield of a few thousand runners. And in 2024 they seem to have it really dialed in for the recreational weekend warrior.
Marquee events with buy-ins on the lower end give shot takers that WSOP excitement and, in at least two instances (with the $1,000 Mystery Millions and the $1,500 Millionaire Maker) the promise that someone will walk away a million dollars richer. The weekends, which we’re including Thursday on – go ahead, take a day off of work we’ll write you a note – include some of the most popular rec events of the summer including last year’s $300 Gladiators of Poker, $500 Colossus, $777 Lucky 7’s as well as the “true” mini-Main Event, the $1,500 Monster Stack. There are just over 20 open events with a buy-in of $1,000 or less, and when you add in the Seniors, Super Seniors, and Ladies Events, there’s a low-cost event for everyone.
Losers: The Value of a WSOP Bracelet
It’s going to be a topic of conversation every year as the schedule expands each summer, but as the opportunities to win a gold bracelet grow, the question of diluting the value of one of poker’s most prized trophies will always come up.
Compared to previous year-over-year changes, moving from 95 live WSOP bracelet events to 99 from 2023 to 2024 feels more negligible than previous years. It remains to be seen what the online component of the schedule will look like, but it feels safe to say that at the very least, it will be comparable to the 20 online bracelets that were available to players in Nevada and New Jersey during the summer of 2023.
When there are WSOP gold bracelets awarded multiple times a year for online series in several different regions of the United States, a variety of different international online series and for WSOP Europe and WSOP Paradise, it feels like the live events in Las Vegas carry a little more weight with each passing year.
With 99 live bracelets on the line during the 2024 WSOP, it seems fair to presume the series will cross into triple digits once the 2025 edition of the series. There were 45 WSOP bracelets to be won in 2005, and 68 in 2015. With all of that in mind, you have to wonder just how many bracelet events there will be in 2035?
Winners: Second Chances
Sure, there are some new events to extend the schedule to a robust 99 live gold bracelet events but, as a whole, it seems as if the WSOP schedule makers said to themselves, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. With the exception of less than a handful of events, the totality of the schedule is virtually the same as it was in 2023. That means, if you loved an event from last year, or worse – you didn’t get to go – your second chance is right around the corner.
All of your favorite tournaments will make an appearance. Even the Gladiators of Poker is back. It’s the first year since 2019 that the marketing hasn’t changed on the massive field, low buy-in kick-off event. Remember The Giant? The Big 50? The Reunion? The Housewarming? Along with this $300 behemoth are all of the staple events that made 2023 a record-breaking year for the WSOP. The marquee low-rollers, the Hall of Fame bounty, all of Championship Event variants as well as the lauded $50K Poker Players Championship are right where you left them. Plus, it’s one of the only series where you can count on a variety of mixed-game tournaments at various price points.
In short: the schedule this year is one of consistency and familiarity – nobody move, nobody get hurt. The recent years of experimenting with marketing plus a number of various promotions have led us to this, a schedule that is just a mild tweak from what was one of the most successful WSOPs in the last decade (as evidenced by its record-breaking Main Event).
So who’s ready to run it back with the WSOP?
Losers: I’ve Been Afraid of Changin’
The year-over-year changes between the 2023 and 2024 WSOP schedules are fun. In addition to the PLO additions (the $10K Big O, PLO Mystery Bounty, and Double Board Bomb Pot event), there’s also a $10K 6-Max Eight Game Event. There’s a Seniors $5,000 High Roller, pushing it to three bracelet events for the retirement-minded crowd.
But by and large, the 2024 edition just feels a little too safe. All of the changes, except perhaps the Double Board Bomb Pot tournament, are just variations on a theme. The trial $1,500 Big O event was successful in 2023, and so a $10,000 event followed. The two Mystery Bounty events had a tremendous reception, and so a PLO version made it’s way into the 2024 schedule. Even the Seniors High Roller feels like it’s trying to capture the energy of another event, after the $10,000 Seniors High Roller during the 2023 WPT World Championship festival at Wynn Las Vegas drew 162 entries and tripled its guarantee.
The offerings at the WSOP have limits, and certain games come and go along with trends. It’s a thin line between playing it too safe and overextending to games that have limited audiences, but it feels like there wasn’t a lot of risk-taking in the construction of the 2024 WSOP schedule.
The real winners and losers of the WSOP will emerge when the 2024 World Series of Poker takes place from May 28 – July 17 at Horseshoe Las Vegas and Paris Las Vegas.