On October 25, 2004 Harrah's announced the creation of the
World Series of Poker Tournament Circuit that marked the
beginning of the 36th annual World Series of Poker season.
And with it began their efforts to evolve the World Series
of Poker from a month long frenzied rush into a year long
sport. The Tournament Circuit is a set of poker tournament
stops at different casinos that will host all-comer events
for players seeking high-level top quality poker action. It
also allows players based on their performance at the
tournament circuit events and the World Series of Poker, to
qualify them for entry into the Tournament of Champions
event. The Tournament of Champions is a freeroll event
meaning that no player who will participate has to put up
any of his or her own funds to play. Harrah’s determines the
number of players from each of the tournament circuit events
who will qualify.

With the popularity of poker on the rise, Harrah's sought to
capitalize on this movement by having 5 legs of the circuit
that would be open to anyone who wanted to play regardless
of skill level. In 2005 events were held in Atlantic City,
NJ during January, San Diego, CA in February, Las Vegas, NV
in March, Lake Tahoe, NV in April and New Orleans, LA in
May. Each of the events were taped and will be aired on
ESPN. All champions who won their events received a WSOP
championship gold ring and a sizable amount of cash, which
easily reached the six-figure level in the Main Events. The
buy-ins for the tournaments ranged from a few hundred
dollars to $10,000 per person for participation in the
Championship Main Event held at each circuit leg.

The game
for each of the Main Events was Texas No-Limit Hold'Em
poker.

The response from the poker playing public was well received
drawing 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, Phil Ivey, John Cernuto, David Pham, Joe Awada, Antonio
Esfandiari and others to the tables. It also brought out
many superior regional poker players who are well known and
respected in their areas of the country.

Since the acquisition of the World Series of Poker name and
brand in 2004, Harrah's has been on a mission to expand the
name into their properties and new areas of which the
tournament circuit is one, so you can trust that this will
be around for a number of years. Now the amount of "rake"
the company earns from event prize pools is 6%, and this
money is used to pay dealers and other expenses. Given the
magnitude of tournament operations, that can't leave that
much for profit. So why do they do it? A company
spokesperson stated that the international exposure,
newspaper and media coverage they are receiving on these
events is priceless to them. It is helping to lay the
groundwork for the corporation to expand greater than what
they already are. So you can count on Harrah's to continue
the effort to make the World Series of Poker bigger and
better than it presently is.

About the Author

Tom Howze is a webmaster for 9 sites that relate to 2005 World Series of Poker and World Poker Tour events, updates and information.