PokerPages.com 2009 WSOP Live Coverage Preview

by Aaron Angerman

The 2009 World Series of Poker is already here. For six weeks, the Rio Hotel & Casino will play host to the biggest WSOP to date. This year marks the 40th anniversary of the WSOP and Harrah´s has some great stuff in store to celebrate four decades of greatness. For those who can't make it to Las Vegas, Poker Pages will once again be providing live updates of all the WSOP action.

Fifty-seven bracelet events are on the 2009 WSOP schedule, including a dozen events with price tags of $10,000 or more. The total number of $10K World Championship events has been bumped from eight to 10, which includes the fabled Main Event. Returning for the 4th year is the star-studded $50K HORSE event. New on the schedule is a special $40K NLHE event.

Poker Pages' live coverage begins Thursday, May 28th, at noon PT with Event #2, the one-time-only 40th anniversary No Limit event with a staggering $40,000 buy-in. We will follow that up with coverage from 55 other bracelet events, culminating with the Main Event and the return of the "November Nine".

The 2009 Main Event begins on Friday, Jul 3rd. By the close of play on the 15th the final table will be set. Once again, the lucky nine will get four months worth of red carpet treatment, before returning to the Rio on November 7th. Once the "November Nine" is trimmed to just two, they'll take two more days off, then return to play for the cash and the bracelet on November 10th.

The highlight of last year's series had to be the Main Event. Peter Eastgate, a 22-year-old from Denmark, outlasted 6,843 others to become the youngest World Champion ever. Eastgate eclipsed the record held by Phil Hellmuth and was awarded more than $9 million and the gold bracelet for his impressive feat, which was accomplished in front of thousands of fans in the Penn & Teller Theatre in the Rio, nearly four months after the final table was set.

But even with the then unknown Eastgate emerging victorious in the most anticipated final table in poker history, 2008 still went down as the "Year of the Pro." Daniel Negreanu, Mike Matusow, Barry Greenstein and Erick Lindgren all earned bracelets. For Lindgren, who was also named Player of the Year, the bracelet was the first of his career. Nenad Medic, Kenny Tran, David Benyamine, David Singer and Dario Minieri also joined Lindgren in earning their first piece of jewelry.

Lindgren earned POY after winning Event #4 and finishing 3rd in the $50K HORSE event, an event eventually won by Scotty Nguyen, albeit in disrespectful fashion. Nguyen verbally abused most everyone in sight, players and staff alike, on his way to winning the first-ever Chip Reese Memorial Trophy and close to $2 million. Nguyen's obscenity streak is a big reason Harrah's has adopted a zero-tolerance policy on cursing for the 2009 WSOP.

ESPN will only show two bracelet events on the air this year, the Main Event and the $40K anniversary event. For those who don´t like to wait months to find out what happened at the tables, or those interested in the other 53 amazing events on tap, Poker Pages live coverage is here for you.

Our team of tournament reporters is bigger than ever. WSOP restrictions limit each media outlet to three credentials on the floor at one time, but the Poker Pages WSOP Team will be eight reporters deep, assuring we'll have a fresh three-person team of poker enthusiasts on each shift for the duration of the WSOP. For a month and a half, our team will bring you the best live coverage blogs available of the 2009 WSOP.

Also back for 2009 is the PokerPages.com WSOP Viewer, which makes live blogs, photos, chip counts and all other pertinent tournament information readily available at the click of a mouse. Whether you need to know who's the chip leader in one event, or the current blind level in another, the PokerPages.com WSOP Viewer makes sure all tournament information is in one place.

Will 2009 again be the "Year of the Pro"? Or will the run of amateurs return after a one year hiatus? If you can´t make it to Las Vegas to find out for yourself, let the Poker Pages WSOP by your eyes and ears on the tournament floor.

Registration for the 2009 WSOP can be done online. For tournament forms and scheduling information, visit http://www.worldseriesofpoker.com/registration/.

WSOP Information Page