Enhancements are coming to the 2020 WSOP

(PRESS RELEASE) -- The 2020 World Series of Poker is just three months away, and while the event schedule is now finalized, several notable enhancements are coming to the 2020 WSOP which will be detailed in the coming months. The first area of improvement involves the registration process. The 51st Annual WSOP is set to run from 26 May to 15 July 2020 at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. For the first time at the WSOP, in-person registration and payouts for events will be separated into different rooms, allowing for more stations to be added to both areas. This is designed to ease congestion and speed up wait times. Loyalty Card: All players are required to have a Caesars Rewards loyalty card to enter WSOP events. To obtain a card for new players, or to request a reprint of your card if you have previously signed up for one, players will visit the Rotunda area in the Rio Convention Center, the same location as it has been previously. A valid picture identification such as a state-issued driver license or a country-issued passport is required for a Caesars Rewards card. It is important to note, players who lost/forgot to bring their physical Caesars Rewards card with them to the Rio, should request a re-print of their card and NOT obtain a new card. Caesars Rewards re-print kiosks will also be available in the Rotunda area, allowing those a quick way to get a physical card when that’s the only need they have. This should allow for a smoother process to get a Caesars Rewards card, register for an event and cash out for any events when a payout was earned. Registration: The main registration area remains in the Tropical Ballroom, near the back end of the Rio Convention Center, with more stations added to both the main registration cage and the VIP cage. This office opens on Tuesday, 26 May at 9:00 a.m., and will remain open 24 hours a day, non-stop through 14 July. Guests are required to present valid picture identification, along with their Caesars Rewards card and payment to enter events. Methods of payment for the required buy-in(s) for WSOP events are as follows: (1) cash, (2) credit/debit cards (Visa, MasterCard, Discover or American Express), (3) wire transfers or cashier’s checks drawn from the registrant’s accredited bank account and made out to Participant or Rio, (4) Rio gaming chips, (5) Rio Tournament Buy-In Chips, or Tournament Buy-In Credit. Additional fees will be incurred on all credit/debit card transactions. Participants using credit/debit cards must have a valid ID that matches the cardholder name present on the credit card used for the transaction. “There is no doubt we need to do a better job of getting people in their seats and playing poker faster,” said WSOP Executive Director Ty Stewart. “We’ve looked closely at several areas in the off-season and are dedicating new resources – technology, equipment and people – to aid in these efforts in 2020. These changes, in conjunction with better informing guests of the required documents needed to register, make us optimistic it can lead to noticeable improvement.” Payouts: Next door to registration in the Palma Ballroom (previously the Media Center) will be the Payout Office. Anyone who has funds to collect will head to the Palma Ballroom (directly across from the Amazon Ballroom player entrance) to be processed. A reminder for players to bring their valid ID, their Caesars Rewards card and any pertinent banking/wiring information if necessary, to the ballroom in order to expedite the transaction times. (International players (applying for an ITIN) are required to bring an additional form of identification that shows residential address, such as a signed lease agreement, a utility bill or a mobile phone bill). Players can request the method of payment(s) of their choice when receiving funds, among the following: *Cash *Wire Transfer *Casino Chips *Check *Personal Tournament Account – Those who opened a Bravo Tournament Buy-In Account with BravoPokerLive.com can direct funds back to their account. Kiosks to Print Seat Assignments: The WSOP will make greater use of technology this year, allowing guests to print seat cards via one of 20 kiosks that will be placed throughout the WSOP footprint. This method only works for players who utilize the Online/Mobile Registration System to select their events and fund them in advance and who have gone through in-person verification of their identification on-site once per WSOP. (Details below). Anyone using a kiosk will need to have their Caesars Rewards card with them. We are encouraging as many players as possible to utilize the online/mobile registration process to sign up for events. This will reserve your seat to an event and allow you to register and pay for WSOP events online. WSOP uses www.BravoPokerLive.com to manage online/mobile registrations. To register online, players will need one visit to the main cage in Tropical Ballroom or the Belize Ballroom for identification. Then verified players can simply pick event(s) online via Bravo, utilize the self-service kiosks located throughout the Rio Convention Center to print their seat cards, and then go directly to their table. 38,565 entries in 2019 utilized the online registration system, about 20% of entries. The goal is to grow this registration method to eventually reach 80% and greatly ease in-person registration congestion. Registration will open in April. We will announce publicly when it is live. WSOP Tournament Account: The free to set up WSOP Tournament Account, established in 2019 returns in 2020, with hopes this too receives greater utilization. 1,523 players set up a WSOP Tournament Account in 2019, including notable poker professional Daniel Negreanu. “The WSOP Tournament Account is a no-brainer for anyone who plays more than a couple WSOP events annually,” said Negreanu. “Literally I went to the registration cage once to set it up, then utilized the self-serve kiosks the rest of the summer to register for any event I wanted to play. I was in and out of the kiosk in less than a minute and on my way to my seat.” The WSOP Tournament Account works as follows: Players wire in funds for WSOP tournament play or put money on account when they arrive. After a player initially sets up this account at the WSOP Main Cage in Tropical Ballroom, the player will have the option to register online or via mobile device for WSOP tournaments with the funds used to initiate the account and simply print seat card(s) at one of the kiosks – avoiding the need to use the registration line to enter events. Belize Ballroom: A dedicated ballroom will be set up in 2020 to assist any players with registration problems. You cannot register for an event in this room, but if you are already registered and need assistance from a person, or if a kiosk isn’t working, etc., bring your Caesars Rewards card and picture identification to the Belize Ballroom (located just North of the Rio Convention Center Rotunda, on the way to the main casino). The goal of all these changes is to limit bottlenecks at all touchpoints. Big 50: The opening weekend $500, 50,000-starting chip, 50-minute level No-Limit Hold’em tournament with starting flights at 10 a.m. on 28, 29, 30 and 31 May – the BIG 50 – will utilize a special process to expedite getting players to their seats as quickly as possible. The plan, to be detailed closer to the event, will benefit those that use the Bravo Poker Live online/mobile registration system to register for the event and allow them to avoid a lengthy wait on-site.

The 2020 WSOP starts 3 months from today!

We have finalized the gold bracelet schedule and ALL events can be seen here: https://t.co/glD5nqgeHE

Improvements to registration and payouts as well. Details here: https://t.co/ZUkb1C6JvX pic.twitter.com/m4Qg0gAiNo

— WSOP (@WSOP) February 27, 2020