50th WSOP at Rio set to start May 28

The 50th World Series of Poker will run from May 28 to July 16 at the Rio Convention Center, with the Main Event set for July 3 to 16, event officials said Thursday.

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of poker’s largest, richest and most prestigious annual tournament, the WSOP will hold the Big 50 event on the opening weekend May 30 to June 2. The $500 buy-in to the Big 50 No-limit Hold ’em event is rake-free, and the winner will claim $1 million from a $5 million prize pool.

“We’re excited to commence our golden event,” WSOP executive director Ty Stewart said in a statement. “We expect our opening weekend

Big 50 event to be one of the largest in our history, and certainly one of the best value tournaments ever offered.”

Buy-ins for tournaments at the

Rio will start as low as $70, and poker games will run 24 hours a day throughout the seven-week series.

A record 123,865 entries participated in the 2018 WSOP, creating a 49-year high of $266.8 million in prize money.

The full event-by-event schedule is expected to be released sometime in the first quarter of 2019. But seven notable events have been finalized, including the $1,500 buy-in Millionaire Maker No-limit Hold ‘em on June 7 and the $888 buy-in Crazy Eights No-limit Hold ’em on June 28.

Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@reviewjournal.com. Follow @tdewey33 on Twitter.