Lucky Dog Poker by Russ Scott

Raise your hand if you were surprised last year when the World Series of Poker broke the overall record with 75,672 entries.

Yeah, me, too.

The 2011 total prize pool was a staggering $191,999,010 — also the largest ever and no doubt a shocker for even die-hard WSOP fans.

For one thing, online poker evaporated in the U.S. after the Department of Justice indictments on April 15, 2011. Even now, there's still an estimated 150 million players' dollars frozen online.

Then there was the nation's lousy economy and crippling jobless rate. Surely, WSOP poker would take a hit.

That didn't happen. So, when WSOP officials last week announced plans for this year's 43rd annual tournament, it was full speed ahead. For example, they:

— Pumped up the schedule to 61 bracelet events, three more than 2011.

— Added 92 poker tables, pushing the total to 470 to handle even greater crowds.

— Set July 1 as the date for an historic $1 million buy-in tournament.

The action launches May 28 with a $1,500 no-limit hold 'em contest and doesn't stop until the main event's nine finalists are decided on July 16.

The final table delay is a week shorter than normal — to Oct. 28-30 — because of the presidential election on Nov. 6.

Technically, they'll be the "October Nine," although it sounds funny.

"This year's WSOP schedule is very exciting," said Jack Effel, back for his seventh straight year as tournament director. "We're introducing some fantastic new events, while bringing back many successful stalwarts that our players love."

The critical word in that last sentence is "successful." It means some traditional events were bumped.

For instance, last year, not counting the main event, there were nine "championship" $10,000 buy-in tournaments covering different poker variations.

However, five of them drew fields ranging from 126 to 202 players — not good enough for a lineup spot this year.

Missing will be the $10K championships for Omaha hi-lo, deuce-to-seven lowball, seven-card stud, limit hold 'em and seven stud hi-lo. All but the lowball event will top out at $5,000 buy-ins instead.

Surviving as $10K events were pot-limit hold 'em, H.O.R.S.E. (mixed-games), pot-limit Omaha and no-limit hold 'em (six-handed).

The WSOP also likes to try new things — and none bigger than this year's $1 million buy-in event, "The Big One for One Drop." More than 10 percent of each buy-in goes to the One Drop Foundation to help provide universal access to drinking water.

As of last week, the 22 sign-ups required for this to be a bracelet event had been reached.

Also sure to get some attention is the new $1,500 ante-only no-limit hold 'em event on June 27. Rather than using blinds, all players will ante each hand. You can count on lots of action with this format.

And that's how the WSOP stays healthy. The tournament lineup gets shaped annually to reflect trends in players' choices of games, to weed out weakly supported events and to make the games generally more affordable.

For instance, 28 events will feature buy-ins of $1,500 or $1,000, counting the seniors and ladies tournaments. Most of those games will be on weekends, when the "average working Joe" has a better chance to seek poker glory.

Even if your name isn't Joe, you might want to check out the possibilities at www.WSOP.com/2012.

E-mail your poker questions and comments to russ@luckydogpoker.com for use in future columns. To find out more about Russ Scott and read previous LuckyDog Poker columns, visit creators.com or luckydogpoker.com.

COPYRIGHT 2012 RUSS SCOTT

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