Harrahs Takes The Pot

In 2004, Harrahs Entertainment purchased Binions Horseshoe, renaming it just Binions and announced that the 2005 Series events would be held at the Harrahs-owned Rio Hotel and Casino, located just off the Las Vegas Strip, with the final two days of the main event held downtown at Binions in celebration of the centennial of the founding of Las Vegas. It also added a made-for-television $2 million freeroll invitational Tournament of Champions (TOC) event won by Annie Duke as a winner-take-all event.

Starting in 2005, the WSOP began a tournament circuit at Harrahs-owned properties in the United States where in addition to the $10,000 buy-in tournament at each site, qualifying players became eligible for a revamped Tournament of Champions. The 2005 TOC, made up of the top twenty qualifying players at each circuit event, along with the final table from the 2005 Main Event and the winners of nine or more bracelets (Hellmuth, Chan and Doyle Brunson) would participate in the revamped TOC at Caesars Palace. Mike The Mouth Matusow won the first prize of $1 million (US), and all the players at the final table were guaranteed a minimum of $25,000 for the eighth and ninth place finishers. During a break in the final table of the 2005 Main Event on July 16, Harrahs announced that eleven properties — including the recently added Ballys and Caesars properites — would host 2005-06 WSOP Circuit events that started on August 11 in Tunica, Mississippi. (One event, that was scheduled for Biloxi, Mississippi was cancelled after the Grand Casino Biloxi, which was scheduled to host the event, suffered major damage from Hurricane Katrina. A second event, scheduled to be held at Harrahs New Orleans, Louisiana property, is in limbo due to damage that it also suffered in said hurricane.)

The Rio will again host all 2006 WSOP major events, beginning on June 25 with satellite events and formally start the next day with the annual Casino Employee tournament, and will feature the TOC on June 28 and 29, 2006, along with the various events leading up to the main event, which will be held from July 28 until August 10. If the limit of 8,000 players buying in for $10,000 each is reached, the first prize is estimated to be $10 million as well as a special bracelet different than the others.