17 new events this year

With just four months until the year’s largest live poker festival, the World Series of Poker has published yet another collection of events. This time, they are the 17 new events on the 2020 WSOP schedule, with buy-ins ranging from $500 to $250,000.

four months until the year’s largest live poker festival

Some of the events were already revealed in previous releases, such as those on the “Value Menu.” Others are familiar tournaments with new price points.

Mystery Bounty tournament

The highlight of the new events for the 2020 WSOP is the debut of the $1,500 buy-in Mystery Bounty No-Limit Hold’em tournament. Like in a typical bounty event, every player will have a price on their head. When someone is knocked out, the player that won the hand receives the eliminated player’s bounty.

The “mystery” feature is what makes this tournament different than the other bounty events on the schedule. 100 players will be bounties worth at least $2,500, but those amounts will not be known until after the players hit the rail. One player’s mystery bounty will be worth $250,000.

The rest of the bounties will be worth $100. The WSOP has not said if the mystery bounties will be hand-selected or determined randomly.

Freezeout Series

There are six new tournaments that are part of what the World Series of Poker calls the “Freezeout Series.” These events, as their names would suggest, allow just one buy-in per player. The half-dozen tournaments have buy-ins of $500, $1,000, $1,500, $2,500, $3,000, and $5,000.

As mentioned in our previous article about the WSOP Value Menu, the Series is stressing freezeout tournaments this year. Throughout the poker calendar, there has been “re-entry creep,” with more and more major tournaments allowing players to re-buy at least once after being knocked out.

The WSOP says that more than 40 events on this summer’s schedule use the freezeout format. Though some people do like re-entry tournaments because they allow for a mulligan of sorts if someone runs into a cooler early, many dislike them because they give deep-pocketed players an advantage.

Old tournaments, new prices

A couple other new tournaments have formats that are not unique to the WSOP, but rather have significantly higher price points than previously seen.

first time that a poker tournament has had this specific price point in Las Vegas

One of these is a Super High Roller No-Limit Hold’em event. We see these all the time, including at the World Series of Poker, but this one has a $250,000 buy-in. According to the WSOP, it is the first time that a poker tournament has had this specific price point in Las Vegas.

The Heads-Up No-Limit Hold’em event this year has had its buy-in bumped up from $10,000 to $25,000. The idea behind the price change is likely to make the event slightly more exclusive. It will be limited to just 64 players, so those who want to participate are advised to register early.