This year marks the 50th anniversary of the World Series of Poker and organizers are celebrating the milestone with arguably the biggest, most value-packed schedule on record.

The 50th World Series of Poker will run from May 28 to July 16, 2019, with over 80 separate gold bracelet events and millions in guaranteed prize pools.

The 2019 WSOP will take place in its entirety at the Rio All-Suites Hotel in Las Vegas (with the exception of a handful of yet-to-be-announced online events that will take place on www.wsop.com). Buy-ins will range from just $400 all the way up to $100,000.

There will be over $200 million awarded to players over the course of the 2019 WSOP, according to estimates from the WSOP. As usual, the series will feature a number of smaller daily tournaments, cash games and more. If you’re a poker player, there’s simply no other place to be.

The complete WSOP live schedule was recently finalized and we’ve broken the schedule down into new events, lower buy-in events, high rollers and the Main Event.

Table of Contents:

2019 WSOP At a Glance

Rake-Free Big 50, Short-Deck Among New Additions

The first and arguably most exciting new event on the 2019 WSOP schedule is the Big 50, which is being held in celebration of the WSOP’s 50th year of existence.

The Big 50 is a $500 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em Re-entry event with a $5-million guaranteed prize pool ($1 million set aside for the eventual Sportsbook). The killer feature for the Big 50 is that it’s rake-free (for the first entry). Generally a $500 buy-in event would have a $50 fee so it’s a huge value for players.

The WSOP has experimented with rake-free events in the past but almost exclusively at the highest tiers such as the $1-million buy-in Big One for One Drop or the defunct Tournament of Champions. A rake-free structure should help make the Big 50 one of the best values on the 2019 WSOP schedule. The tournament will kick off on May 30 with four starting days giving everyone a chance to get in on the action.

This year the WSOP will also offer a “Mini” Main Event for the first time ever. The Mini Main Event will take place two days before the actual Main Event and will feature the exact same blind structure but with 30-minute levels instead of 120-minute levels. The buy-in is also reduced from the usual $10,000 to just $1,000.

Meanwhile, high rollers will get an entirely new game to play this year. Short Deck Hold’em, which removes 2, 3, 4, 5 from the deck, has already made waves in Asia but will be making its debut at this year’s WSOP in the form of a $10,000 buy-in championship event.

Here’s a look at some of the most notable first-time additions to the WSOP schedule:

Over Twenty Events Cost $1,000 or Less

The WSOP has made a huge push into the affordable poker tournament market over the last few years and the 50th edition of the series is no exception with an astounding 20 events that carry buy-ins of $1,000 or less.

The cheapest tournament on the 2019 WSOP is the $400 buy-in Colossus. The Colossus was previously a $500 buy-in event but organizers decided to switch it up this year. The Colossus is routinely the biggest tournament at the WSOP and the inaugural edition (back in 2015) attracted a record-setting 22,374 entries.

While No-Limit Hold’em is always the main focus of low-stakes events, this year there will also be a couple of Pot-Limit Omaha events. On July 10 there will be a $600 buy-in PLO Deepstack tournament and then on June 18 there will be a $600 buy-in No-Limit/PLO mixed tournament.

In its final update to this year’s WSOP schedule, Sportsbook announced the addition of six events with buy-ins of $600 to $800 with deepstack structures giving low-stakes players even more to consider.

Here’s a look at all the bargain tournaments of the 2019 WSOP:

High Rollers Get 20 Championship Events

While the WSOP may focus more than ever on the recreational player, that doesn’t mean that professional poker players won’t have some options.

This year the WSOP is offering 20 championship events with buy-ins that start at $10,000.

The biggest event on tap this year will be a $100,000 buy-in Super High Roller event taking place on July 11.

Perhaps even more interesting than the $100k buy-in event, however, is the addition of a $50,000 buy-in tournament for the 50th anniversary of the WSOP on May 31. The event will run for four days and players will start with 300,000 chips. It will be the first high roller tournament of the 2019 WSOP.

That won’t be the only $50,000 buy-in tournament at the 2019 WSOP as the $50,000 Poker Players’ Championship, which crowns poker’s all-around best player, will return for its 13th year.

Finally, high rollers and poker fans who’ve had enough of No-Limit Hold’em will likely be interested in the $25,000 buy-in Pot-Limit Omaha championship on June 19.

Here’s a look at all the $10,000 and higher WSOP events (not including the Main Event):

2019 Main Event Offers More Chips, Big Blind Ante

The long-running $10,000 buy-in WSOP Main Event is the richest, most successful tournament in the history of poker but that doesn’t mean organizers are afraid of tweaking it.

This year’s Main Event will give players a slight increase in chips (60,000 instead of 50,000) and will utilize the Big Blind Ante to streamline play.

Players will also have a little more time to get in on the action as registration has been extended to the start of play on Day 2, which is noon. The 14-day tournament will run from July 3-16 with three starting days.

Everything will be the same as the Main Event remains a No-Limit Hold’em tournament with no re-entries allowed. Expect the Sportsbook to walk away with $7+ million.

Here's a look at the three starting days for the 2019 Main Event:

Complete 2019 WSOP Schedule

It pretty much goes without saying that there will be something for everyone at the 2019 WSOP.

Even if players can’t find exactly what they are looking for on the official WSOP schedule, there will still be a number of non-bracelet Daily Deepstack tournaments with buy-ins ranging from $150 to $400. As usual there will also be a large number of cash games available for players looking to play something other than tournaments.

Outside of poker the WSOP also has plans for a number of special 50th-anniversary events including an awards gala and more. Poker players can also get discounted room rates at Sportsbook properties so be sure to do some research while planning your trip.

Here’s a look at the complete 2019 World Series of Poker schedule:

Online Bracelets Every Sunday from June 2 to July 14

It used to be that you could only win a gold bracelet in-person at the Rio (or, prior to that, Binion’s) but these days it’s possible to win the fabled piece of poker jewelry from anywhere in Nevada with an Internet connection.

This year Sportsbook will offer nine online gold bracelets on its WSOP.com platform. It’s switching things up by making Sunday the major day for online action with a bracelet event every Sunday from June 2 to July 14.

There will also be a couple Wednesday events (one on June 19 and one on July 3) to mix things up.

In addition there will be a large number of ways to qualify for the actual, real-life WSOP for a fraction of the cost of a direct buy-in.

The WSOP.com software is currently available to players in Nevada and New Jersey (NJ players are still pending approval for the bracelet events this summer, however).

You don’t need to be a resident of Nevada to play on WSOP.com and visitors can play from the comfort of their hotel room.

Here’s a complete look at the online schedule:

Broadcast Schedule for 2019 WSOP

Poker fans will be happy to know that ESPN will be on hand for yet another year of the World Series of Poker.

ESPN will provide coverage of the entire 2019 WSOP Main Event. The worldwide leader in sports has provided coverage of the WSOP since the late ‘80s.

This year ESPN has committed to at least 40 hours of live coverage of the 2019 Main Event as well as 90 hours of originally produced episodes that will likely debut in the fall.

Similar to last year poker streaming service PokerGO will fill in the gaps where ESPN isn’t filming. PokerGO has yet to release a schedule but it will include partial Main Event coverage and a large number of side events.

Here’s a look at the initial live broadcast schedule for the Main Event: