Main Event Mania: WSOP Aims to Set Record for Largest Poker Tournament in History Main Event Mania: WSOP Aims to Set Record for Largest Poker Tournament in History

If the Main Event is on your bucket list, this is the year to get to Vegas. The World Series of Poker has revealed the full live and online WSOP 2023 schedule. The 54th annual WSOP will return to the Las Vegas Strip from May 30 to July 18 this year. The press release contains dozens of interesting tidbits, unique new events, big new promotional pushes, a huge satellite schedule, and more.

But among the dizzying details, one key fact stands out: organizers really want to set a new record at the Main Event. And to do so, the operator, alongside its global online partner GGPoker, is pulling out all the stops.

“With the momentum generated from the WSOP’s debut on the Las Vegas Strip last year, we expect a record-breaking WSOP and World Championship at Paris and Horseshoe Las Vegas in 2023,” said Ty Stewart, SVP & Executive Director of the WSOP. “If the Main Event is on your bucket list, this is the year to get to Vegas.”

To make these record-breaking efforts even more interesting is a unique new twist — If a new participation record is set, then organizers will give away one prize never seen before and perhaps will never be seen again: a “Main Event for Life” golden ticket. This gives one lucky player WSOP Main Event entries every year for the next 30 years.

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Win your way to the WSOP 2023!
GGPoker is the only international site to offer official WSOP online qualifiers.

If you’re in the UK, Canada, South America, or most of Europe, this is the place to get in on WSOP action from the comfort of your own home.

  • Online satellites to the Main Event and other bracelet events will run throughout 2023.
  • Official online bracelet series on GGPoker for international players expected next year.
  • Sign up today to claim a $600 sign-up bonus and take advantage of every WSOP 2023 offer and promotion as soon as they run.
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Win your way to the WSOP 2023!
GGPoker Ontario is the only Ontario site to offer official WSOP online qualifiers.

If you’re in Ontario, this is the place to get in on WSOP action from the comfort of your own home.

  • Online satellites to the Main Event and other bracelet events will run throughout 2023.
  • Official WSOP Ontario online bracelet series expected next year.
  • Sign up today so you’re ready to take advantage of every WSOP 2023 offer and promotion as soon as they run.
wsop
Win your way to the WSOP 2023!
WSOP is the only US site to offer official WSOP online qualifiers.

If you’re in Pennsylvania, Michigan, New Jersey or Nevada, this is the place to get in on WSOP action from the comfort of your own home.

  • Online satellites to the Main Event and other bracelet events will run throughout 2023.
  • Official online bracelet series across WSOP’s US network expected next year.
  • Sign up today to claim a $1000 sign-up bonus and take advantage of every WSOP 2023 offer and promotion as soon as they run.
Please play responsibly. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800 GAMBLER.

Main Event Maynia: How WSOP and GGPoker Aim to Break Records at WSOP 2023

The largest-ever live poker tournament measured by prize pool is the 2006 WSOP Main Event: 8773 players paid or won their $10,000 entry fee to play, generating a prize pool of $82.5 million. But last year, the operator got really close, generating an $80.8 million prize pool, falling just 111 players shy of the record.

This year, WSOP wants to break this 17-year record and to do so it’s leaving nothing to chance.

Firstly, partner GGPoker has committed to sending 600 players to the Main Event — more than double the number of official qualifiers it sent last year. At least 500 of these will come through qualifiers on GGPoker.com — which, while unstated, will likely include the WSOP Ontario site in Canada too.

100 more will come through ClubGG, the site’s subscription-based app available to play across the US, as it does not offer real money games. In fact, as pokerfuse exclusively reported last year, this promotion started many months ago.

WSOP Main Event: Top Five Largest Prize Pools

Year Prize Pool First-Place Prize Entrants
2006 $82,512,162 $12,000,000 8773
2022 $80,782,475 $10,000,000 8663
2019 $80,548,600 $10,000,000 8569
2018 $74,015,600 $8,800,000 7874
2010 $68,799,059 $8,944,310 7319

WSOP will also be running a world-first Main Event Maynia, an unprecedented synchronized, five-continent effort to send another 100 players through live qualification routes over a single weekend. In one weekend in May, across poker rooms in the United States, Canada, France, Czech Republic, Uruguay, Morocco — with many more stops to be announced — players can participate in a step tournament with a buy-in of $140, leading into a $1,175 satellite awarding a guaranteed Main Event seat and travel to Las Vegas.

For WSOP US online poker players, there will be 112 seats given away through online satellites, with a minimum of 10 buy-ins up for grabs every day from late June and a centerpiece $250,000-guaranteed 25 Seat Scramble in early July.

And on top of that, there are, of course, online bracelets events too — a monstrous schedule of 20 events across Nevada and New Jersey, plus seven each in Pennsylvania and Michigan, separately, to take the total to 34 bracelets to be awarded through purely online play.

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Main Event Schedule: Details and Dates

The structure of the Main Event itself is unchanged from previous years. The tournament is a freezeout — players can only enter once — and entry sits at $10,000.

It is scheduled at the end of the seven weeks of WSOP 2023 dates, with Day 1s clustered around July 4. They combine into two separate Day 2 flights before combining all together for Day 3 on July 9, with play every day until July 14, when action players down to a final nine players.

July 15 is a single rest day before the final table combines on July 16. Two days are set aside for final table action, but an eventual winner must be crowned by July 17.

WSOP 2023 Main Event Schedule

Date Weekday Time Day Info
Jul-03 Monday 12:00 PM Day 1A
Jul-04 Tuesday 12:00 PM Day 1B
Jul-05 Wednesday 12:00 PM Day 1C
Jul-06 Thursday 12:00 PM Day 1D
Jul-07 Friday 12:00 PM 2ABC For all surviving players 1A + 1B + 1C
Jul-08 Saturday 12:00 PM Day 2D For all surviving 1D players
Jul-09 Sunday 12:00 PM Day 3 Combines all fields into one
Jul-10 Monday 12:00 PM Day 4
Jul-11 Tuesday 12:00 PM Day 5
Jul-12 Wednesday 12:00 PM Day 6
Jul-13 Thursday 12:00 PM Day 7
Jul-14 Friday 12:00 PM Plays down to 9 players
Jul-16 Sunday TBD Final Table
Jul-17 Monday TBD Final Table