Countdown to the WSOP - 18 Days and Counting

In case you missed the announcement, PokerNews will have a big presence at the World Series of Poker this summer in Las Vegas. We have teamed with Bluff Media, the official media partner of the WSOP, so we will be bringing you all of the action from the floor for each of the 55 events on the World Series schedule. While we are already in full prep mode for this huge reporting challenge, we want to keep you up-to-date on some of the recent announcements from what will be the largest schedule of tournaments during one event in history of poker.

HORSE: There will be three HORSE events this summer:

Event #16 on June 9th is a $2500 buy-in; Event #26 on June 15th will be a $5,000 tournament and then on June 24th is the big $50,000 HORSE event that attracted 143 entrants last summer. The big change this year in addition to the expanded HORSE offerings will be the structure at the final table. Unlike in previous years, the final table will not be played as No Limit Hold'em. All three HORSE events will be "All Horse All the Time." HORSE for the uninitiated is a combination of five games all played at limit stakes. The games are Hold'em, Omaha 8, Razz, Stud and Stud 8. The rounds and limits are a bit complicated but if you follow our coverage we will make it all clear. Last year's $50K HORSE was a truly amazing event to follow and we will be offering you complete coverage for all five days of this year's event. Also recently added to the WSOP schedule are seven $2,250 Mega-satellites for the $50K HORSE event.

SHOE: A new event will be the $1,000 SHOE on July 1st. SHOE is another multi-game event combining Stud, Hold'em, Omaha and Stud 8 - again all played as limit games. The SHOE event will also maintain the four game spread structure through the final table.

TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS: You may have noticed there is no Tournament of Champions on the 2007 WSOP schedule. For the past two years the TOC has been associated with the series. It was a small event with standing invitations to the previous year's Main Event Final Table players plus the winners of each of the WSOP Circuit events and several "sponsor's selections." There is no TOC on the 2007 WSOP schedule but we hear the event is not gone - just postponed.

Fifty-Five Events means a lot of poker and a lot of chances for a variety of games. We all know that poker has become 'All Hold'em, All the Time' and tournaments have become 'All No Limit, All the Time.' In a continuing effort to offer more games and more variations the WSOP staff has created a very unique schedule for this summer. Here is the breakdown of all the events; take a good look at the entire list and you will see that the WSOP staff is trying very hard to make this a World Series of Poker.

No Limit Hold'em (14 events)

No Limit Hold'em 6 Handed (3 events)

No Limit Hold'em w/rebuys (2 events)

No Limit Hold'em Shootout (1 event)

No Limit Hold'em Heads Up (1 Event)

Pot Limit Hold'em (3 events)

Limit Hold'em (4 events)

Limit Hold'em Shootout (1 event)

Mixed Hold'em: Limit & No Limit (2 events)

Ladies No Limit Hold'em (1 event)

Seniors No Limit Hold'em (1 event)

Pot Limit Omaha (2 events)

Pot Limit Omaha w/rebuys (2 events)

Omaha 8 (3 events)

Pot Limit Omaha 8 (1 event)

Omaha 8/Stud 8 (1 event)

Stud (3 events)

Stud 8 (3 events)

HORSE (3 events)

SHOE (1 event)

Razz (1 event)

Deuce-to-Seven w/rebuy (1 event)

NL Deuce-to-Seven w/rebuy (1 event)

And of course, every cash game you can imagine; single table satellites in a new variety of offerings plus super satellites, mega-satellites and the new expanded $1,000 evening tournament. It all starts on June 1st.