The World Series of Poker (WSOP) has officially launched its new WSOP+ app for the 2025 series in Las Vegas, promising to dramatically improve the player experience by reducing wait times and streamlining event access.
Available now for iOS and Android, the WSOP+ app allows players to pre-register for live events, skip lengthy registration lines, and receive real-time updates about seat availability through a virtual queue and push notifications. The app also becomes a central hub for all WSOP essentials, including event schedules, structure sheets, chip counts, rules, daily results, prize payouts, and more.
"WSOP+ will further elevate the WSOP experience for all of our players," said Ty Stewart, CEO of the World Series of Poker. "Not only can our community now save time and effort by registering in advance for their favorite tournaments, but the app will also showcase WSOP content and all of the important event information that participants are eager to have at their fingertips!"
Welcome back to PokerNews, the official media partner of the 2025 World Series of Poker and home of live updates from all bracelet events.
Today sees the start of Event #2: $500 Industry Employees No-Limit Hold'em here at Horseshoe and Paris, Las Vegas. Previously called the Casino Employees event, a name change for 2025 now means that poker bloggers, vloggers and streamers are all eligible to play.
This has caused some controversy in the months leading up to the 2025 WSOP, but that's all in the past now as the series has begun.
This two-day event gets underway at 2 p.m. local time, with late registration open for nine 40-minute levels, and one reentry is allowed. There will be 15-minute breaks every three levels, with a 60-minute dinner break at the end of Level 9 (~8:30 p.m.).
The starting stack is 25,000 chips with the plan for Day 1 to play 15 40-minute levels or down to 15% of the field, whichever is later. For the surviving players, Day 2 resumes Wednesday, May 28, at 1 p.m. and plays down to a winner.
Last year’s event was the one of the largest Casino Employees Events in history, with a field of 1,189 entries generating a prize pool of $499,380. The winner was Jose Garcia, who defeated Richard Rothmeier heads-up to win $79,134 and his first WSOP bracelet.
Year
Entries
Winner
Country
Payout
2024
1,189
Jose Garcia
United States
$79,134
2023
1,015
Peter Thai
United States
$75,535
2022
832
Katie Kopp
United States
$65,168
2021
419
James Barnett
United States
$39,013
2020
-
Not held
-
-
2019
686
Nicholas Haynes
United States
$62,345
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Stay tuned to PokerNews for live updates from the tournament floor throughout the day and to find out who advances to Day 2!
Event #2: $500 Industry Employees No-Limit Hold'em
