World Series Of Poker Tournament Circuit
By Tom Howze, Sat Dec 10th

On October 25, 2004 Harrah's announced the creation of the WorldSeries of Tournament Circuit that marked the beginning ofthe 36th annual World Series of season. And with it begantheir efforts to evolve the World Series of from a monthlong frenzied rush into a year long sport. The TournamentCircuit is a set of tournament stops at different casinosthat will host all-comer events for players seeking high-leveltop quality action. It also allows players based on theirperformance at the tournament circuit events and the WorldSeries of Poker, to qualify them for entry into the Tournamentof Champions event. The Tournament of Champions is a freerollevent meaning that no player who will participate has to put upany of his or her own funds to play. Harrah’s determines thenumber of players from each of the tournament circuit events whowill qualify.

With the popularity of on the rise, Harrah's sought tocapitalize on this movement by having 5 legs of the circuit thatwould be open to anyone who wanted to play regardless of skilllevel. In 2005 events were held in Atlantic City, NJ duringJanuary, San Diego, CA in February, Las Vegas, NV in March, LakeTahoe, NV in April and New Orleans, LA in May. Each of theevents were taped and will be aired on ESPN. All champions whowon their events received a WSOP championship gold ring and asizable amount of cash, which easily reached the six-figurelevel in the Main Events. The buy-ins for the tournaments rangedfrom a few hundred dollars to $10,000 per person forparticipation in the Championship Main Event held at eachcircuit leg. The game for each of the Main Events was TexasNo-Limit Hold'Em poker.

The response from the playing public was well receiveddrawing noted professionals like Erick Lindgren, Mimi Tran,Chris Ferguson, Chad Brown, Dewey Tomko, Robert Williamson III,Andy Bloch, J.C. Tran, Jennifer Harman Traniello, Tony Ma, PhilIvey, John Cernuto, David Pham, Joe Awada, Antonio Esfandiariand others to the tables. It also brought out many superiorregional players who are well known and respected in theirareas of the country.

Since the acquisition of the World Series of name andbrand in 2004, Harrah's has been on a mission to expand the nameinto their properties and new areas of which the tournamentcircuit is one, so you can trust that this will be around for anumber of years. Now the amount of "rake" the company earns fromevent prize pools is 6%, and this money is used to pay dealersand other expenses. Given the magnitude of

tournamentoperations, that can't leave that much for profit. So why dothey do it? A company spokesperson stated that the internationalexposure, newspaper and media coverage they are receiving onthese events is priceless to them. It is helping to lay thegroundwork for the corporation to expand greater than what theyalready are. So you can count on Harrah's to continue the effortto make the World Series of bigger and better than itpresently is.

About the author:Tom Howze is a webmaster for 9 sites that relate to 2005 WorldSeries of and World Tour events, updates andinformation.