In an obvious attempt to jazz up the occasion, World Series of Poker (WSOP) revealed on Monday that a hundred additional players, including several professional players from playsolidpoker.com, will be taking part in this year’s WSOP National Competition. In 2011, only a hundred players were qualified, this year as many as two hundred will vie for a part of the one million dollars prize fund.
Like in 2011, a hundred players will meet the entry requirements based on how they performed during the last WSOP circuit season. Thirty-four automatic qualifiers will emerge: 17 casino champions and 17 WSOP circuit Major Event winners. The remaining sixty six places will be given to players who garner the highest points on WSOP Circuit throughout the whole season. These ‘one hundred’ players will be given the opportunity to play free of charge in the one million dollars guaranteed prize fund WSOP National Competition, which will kick off 6th of July.
While the concept of recompensing the finest players of WSOP Circuit with a rewarding free roll which is as well a genuine WSOP bracelet occasion is a good one, the competition organized last year attracted little attention from poker players. It seems like they are trying to resolve the situation by including big name players, players that do not feature regularly in the lesser buy-in Circuit occasions. Therefore, the best one hundred points earners during the WSOP of 2010, WSOP Europe of 2010, WSOP 2011 as well as WSOP Europe of 2011, will qualify to take part in this year’s WSOP National Competition. However, these players will still have to pay an entry fee of ten thousand dollars. This amount will be added to the one million dollars already, within the prize fund.
In a statement made available to the press, Ty Stewart WSOP Executive Director declared that he was proud of the new format. He stated, “This is the very first time, we will be taking the very best from all the events organized by us, to compete against each other, to determine a genuine WSOP National Champ.”
The top ten eligible players from the last 2 years of WSOP Europe and WSOP are Frank Kassela, David Baker, John Racener, Jonathan Duhamel, Chris Moorman, John Juanda, Phil Hellmuth, Shawn Buchanan, Ben Lamb and Michael Mizrachi. The other members of the top one hundred is filled with popular names such as Sammy Farha, Gavin Smith, Tom Dwan, Martin Staszko 2011 WSOP Major Event second best, Men Nguyen, Jason Mercier, Pious Heinz 2011 WSOP Major Event Champ, Bertrand Grospelier, Eugene Katchalov, and many more.
In 2011, ninety seven of the one hundred eligible players of the WSOP Circuit took part in the National contest. Sam Barnhart won that event and that earned him his first ever WSOP gold bracelet and first ever WSOP money. Barnhart won a total of $300,000, a good way to start winning cash in the competition. Then he quickly became a popular face on ESPN telecasts. He made an extremely deep run within the Major Event before finally giving up in seventeenth place. That conclusion improved his National Championship money by nearly eighty thousand dollars.