2024 WSOP Schedule Offers More Tournaments For Weekend Warriors 

The 2024 World Series of Poker has begun in Las Vegas. Vegas Golden Knights Stanley Cup Champion Jonathan Marchessault kicked off the WSOP with the ‘Shuffle Up And Deal” announcement ahead of Event #1 on Tuesday, May 28. Marchessault then sat down to play in his first ever WSOP tournament in Event #1 - the $5,000 Champions Reunion No Limit Hold’Em Freezeout.

"I’ve heard about how special the World Series of Poker is, but seeing all of this energy today with former champions on hand really drives home the magnitude of this event," said Marchessault. "The WSOP holds a special place in Las Vegas history, and I am so glad I could come out and be a part of it today."

Off Shore Gaming Association sports and gaming analyst FairwayJay is credentialed media for the WSOP, and he was at the opening WSOP ceremony which included Marchessault getting some poker tips from 6-time WSOP gold bracelet champion Daniel Negreanu. Then more than a dozen past WSOP Main Event champions were honored and part of the opening Champions Reunion Event #1. Players who knocked out a former WSOP Main Event champion in Event #1 earned a $10,000 Main Event seat at this year's WSOP.

FairwayJay provides select coverage of the WSOP and chipped-in the World Series Of Poker Schedule along with satellites, registration and poker coverage in Forbes. FairwayJay is a proven and profitable cash game and select tournment player who also cashed in 2-of-5 WSOP live gold bracelet events last year, including a top-100 finish (top 2%) from more than 6,000 entries in a $600 entry Deep Stack. 

But while tens of thousands of poker players converge in Las Vegas for the WSOP and 99 gold bracelet live events and another 30 online bracelet events, it's the weekend warriors that will drive some of the record entries for many of the more affordable tournaments and events. Last year's record-breaking World Championship Main Event drew 10,043 entries and shattered the previous Main Event record of 8,773 entries in 2006. Much of that was due to more poker satellites and online qualifying tournaments that allowed more people to win their way into the Main Event at a lesser cost and investment. The WSOP Final Table produced 8 millionaires with $12 million to the winner - Daniel Weinman from Atlanta. I provided more coverage and my personal poker experiences in the WSOP Final Table link.  

"Poker continues to trend upwards," WSOP Vice President Jack Effel told FairwayJay ahead of this year's World Series of Poker. "The barometer for poker in general and health is high, and access to poker tournaments and cash games continues to trend upwards."

More than 10 WSOP gold bracelet events set record entries last year, and many of those included the more affordable events. If you're traveling to Las Vegas to play poker in the WSOP, and looking complete in some of the popular weekend events, here are the tournaments and dates of interest. Many of the WSOP events are 3 days starting Thursday or Friday. Of course, cash games are going around the clock for 24 hours at poker rooms across Las Vegas with many other big tournaments hosted at Wynn Las Vegas, Venetian, Aria, Golden Nugget and others. 

Weekend Warriors WSOP Schedule

The $10,000 entry MAIN EVENT No-Limit Hold'em World Championship is Event #81 with four starting flights beginning July 3. 

“Poker has turned into a sporting activity," Effel added in his conversation with FairwayJay. "It requires a much different level of training to be able to perform or play the game than even 20 years ago when the ‘Moneymaker Effect’ caused a big poker boom.”

Check the full 2024 WSOP schedule for other events with buy-ins of $1,000 or less that are offered during the week, including the $1,000 Seniors (age 50 and over), which is Event #46 starting Tues., June 18. Last year's $1,000 Seniors event drew a record 8,180 entries. 

The $1,000 buy-in Mystery Millions in Event #5 has a guaranteed 1st place prize of at least $1,000,000. Bounties start on Day 2, and the top bounty is $1,000,000. 

The Gladiators of Poker Event #20 has a guaranteed prize pool of $3,000,000 with re-entries. Last year's inaugural $300 Gladiators of Poker was the most affordable live event in the history of the WSOP. The four starting flights creating a whopping 23,088 entries and smashed the guarantee to create a massive prize pool of $3,603,162 - of which $500,000 went to the winner. The 2023 Gladiators of Poker event was also the WSOP second-largest tournament field size of all time. 

The $400 COLOSSUS started as a less expensive version of the Millionaire Maker event and is one of the largest during WSOP. This year's COLUSSUS is Event #70 and the 2023 COLOSSUS event drew 15,894 entries to create a prize pool of $5.2 million. The first-ever WSOP Colossus tournament took place in 2015, and it attracted a field size of 22,374 entries. At the time, it set the record for the largest field size of all time for a live poker tournament. 

The largest turnout for a live poker tournament in history belongs to the 2019 WSOP Big 50 event. In 2019, the World Series of Poker celebrated the 50th annual WSOP with an opening weekend that featured the Big 50 no-limit hold'em tournament. The $500 buy-in and $5,000,000 guaranteed prize pool drew a massive record 28,371 entries for a prize pool of $13,509,435. FairwayJay played and cashed-in the Big 50 event and finished in the top 1,100 entries Top 4%). 

Poker players from across the world qualified for select 2024 WSOP events at top poker sites. While poker still faces hurdles in the U.S., there is no denying the popularity of poker and interest in tournaments and the WSOP. 

You can follow WSOP live reporting from PokerNews along with WSOP.com with PokerGo also providing more than 300 hours of WSOP livestream for poker fans to follow throughout the WSOP from May 28 through July 17.