Hellmuth Retires From The WSOP Main

Phil Hellmuth announced his retirement from the WSOP Main Event, unless changes are made to the tournament’s format. 

Why: Hellmuth, who’s a two-time Main Event champion, believes the tournament has shifted from a test of skill to a test of endurance, with the event stretching up to nine days and featuring 10-12 hour sessions.

Hellmuth, who turned 61 in June, expressed his love for the tournament but admitted that the intense endurance required makes it difficult for him to compete.

Here’s what he proposes: Simply demanding a change without offering a solution wouldn’t be productive, so Hellmuth suggests adding two extra rest days - after Day 5 and Day 8 of the tournament.

How this adjustment would impact Hellmuth, who last cashed in the Main Event in 2017 with a 419th-place finish for $21,786, remains unclear.

What are the pros saying? When Hellmuth speaks, mixed reactions are inevitable, and this time was no different. Eric Seidel supported his viewpoint, while Scott Siever and Daniel Negreanu emphasized the importance of preserving the tournament’s historic integrity - maintaining its two-hour levels, $10,000 buy-in, and freezeout format.

Headlines

• ElkY. After five years as a GGPoker ambassador, ElkY has announced his departure from the team. The Frenchman has over $14 million in live tournament earnings to his name, along with WSOP, EPT and WPT titles on his resume.

• Champs. The PokerGo Cup is well underway with Joey Weissman, Sergio Aido and Eric Blair all clinching their first titles of the year. Weissman has an early lead in the PokerGo Tour’s Leaderboard.

• Drug-Free. Chamath Palihapatiya, the billionaire co-host of the All-In Podcast, has proposed an idea for a new ultra-high stakes poker tournament series. All participants would be required to be drug-free (and be tested!), no face-coverings would be allowed and the structures would be reasonably fast, yet allow for meaningful gameplay. Who says no? 

WSOP Schedule Announced

The World Series of Poker has released its full tournament schedule, and there's plenty to look forward to this summer.

100: This summer's WSOP will feature a record-breaking 100 bracelet events. It also marks the first year under GGPoker's ownership, following their $500 million acquisition of the brand. With that, an increase in event volume and innovative formats was expected.

New: Some fun new additions to the schedule include the $1,500 PLO Double Board Bomb Pot event and the $1,000 Battle of the Ages tournament. In this one, players under 50 and those 50+ will play separate Day 1 flights before coming together on Day 2 to battle it out for the bracelet.

The Main Event: The culmination of the World Series, of course, is the Main Event which we’ve discussed in great detail in today’s edition. The Main Event will start on July 2nd with Day 1’s running up until July 5th.