2012 WSOP kicks-off today with Casino Employee event

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Published May 27th, 2012 in WSOP

The 2012 World Series of Poker is finally here, and has been the case for most of the last decade, the tournament series will kick-off with the $500 Casino Employee’s tournament.

Last year’s Casino Employees event was won by Sean Drake, who bested the field of 850 players to walk away with the $82,292 first place prize. Attendance was up considerably from the year before in this tournament (when Hoai Pham beat a field of 721 entrants) which set the table for the 2011 WSOP’s remarkable attendance despite Black Friday having just occurred a month or so before.

In 2008 the Casino Employee tournament was moved to the tail-end schedule, marking the first time in the tournament’s history it wasn’t played on the first day of the WSOP (in 2007 the tournament occurred on the first day of the WSOP but was officially Event #2).

Over its history the Casino Employee tournament has seen a few players go on to professional careers: Perhaps the most famous of which was Bryan Devonshire who finished second in the tournament in 2006. The tournament has been a staple of the WSOP schedule since its inception in 2000.

This year the Casino Employee tournament will be the only event played on the first day of the 2012 WSOP, with a $1,500 NLHE tournament scheduled for Monday (again this will be the only event of the day) and on Tuesday, May 29, the WSOP schedule will be in full swing, with the $1,500 NLHE event in Day 2 and a $3k Heads-Up NLHE/PLO tournament and a $1,500 Stud 8 or better event on the schedule.

Here is a glimpse at the first week of events at the 2012 WSOP:

1	May 27, noon	Casino Employees Event No-Limit Hold ‘Em (Two-Day Event)	$500
2	May 28, noon	No-Limit Hold ‘Em (Three-Day Event)	$1,500
3	May 29, noon	Heads-Up No-Limit Hold ‘Em/Pot-Limit Omaha (Three-Day Event)	$3,000
4	May 29, 5 p.m.	Seven-Card Stud High-Low Eight-Or-Better (Three-Day Event)	$1,500
5	May 30, noon	Pot-Limit Hold ‘Em (Three-Day Event)	$1,500
6	May 31, noon	Mixed Max (Day 1 Nine-Handed, Day 2 Six-Handed, Day 3 And 4 Heads-Up)	$5,000
7	May 31, 5 p.m.	Seven-Card Stud (Three-Day Event)	$1,500
8	June 1, noon	Omaha High-Low Split Eight-Or-Better (Three-Day Event)	$1,500
9	June 2, noon	No-Limit Hold ‘Em Re-Entry (Two Starting Days, Five-Day Event)	$1,500