World Series Of Poker Schedule Revealed

Order of events for major poker championship unveiled.

The organisers of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) have released the schedule for this year's 40th anniversary event.

Beginning on May 27th, the prestigious poker tournament will once again take place at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas following a record-breaking 2008 edition.

Last year the WSOP received the most entries in its history with 58,720, while an unprecedented 128 nationalities were represented at the event. The prize pool also reached a record $180,774,427 (£127,040,219) in 2008.

For the 2009 WSOP, the number of gold bracelet events has been increased from 55 to 57, with a special $40,000 buy-in no-limit hold'em tournament added to the schedule to commemorate the event's 40th year.

WSOP commissioner Jeffrey Pollack said: "This year's schedule offers more variety than ever before and we look forward to welcoming players from around the world to the Rio for our 40th annual extravaganza this summer."

The controversial main event format introduced last year, whereby the nine finalists take a four-month break before playing the final table in November, has been retained.

Last year's WSOP main event was won by Danish player Peter Eastgate.