The World Series of Poker is introducing a new event to attract a different audience.
Called "The Colossus," the event features a smaller buy-in than other WSOP tournaments, and offers a minimum prize pool of $5 million.
Seth Palansky is the vice president of corporate communications for Caesars Interactive Entertainment. He told KNPR's State of Nevada that organizers hope the new event will bring in a whole new group of poker players.
"We're really trying to broaden the game, get a lot of new entrants & a lot of new players who play regularly recreationally," Palansky said.
He said they want players to know that the World Series of Poker is friendly and welcoming to all poker players.
The message is apparently getting through. Palansky said the tournament is expecting to break the world record for the largest live poker tournament ever held.
"We're at all time highs in terms of participation and prize money awarded, the two categories we really measure ourselves against," Palansky said.
The tournament started at Binion's Horseshoe downtown in 1970 with a table of seven players. It moved to the Rio 11 years ago and now has a main event with 7,000 participants.
"What this event has become is one of the staples of Las Vegas. It's been here annually since 1970," Palansky said.
Even though the tournament is an historic one in the city, the organizers said they love looking for ways to make WSOP fresh.
"The great thing about having new event every year is we can create new tournaments and keep up with what's going on," Palansky said.
Besides the addition of The Colossus, this year's tournament will have the first online bracelet event. WSOP winners are always given gold bracelets, and now the winner of the online tournament will be no different.
Seth Palansky, World Series of Poker
