With the World Series of Poker lurking around the corner, the month of May is a much less jam-packed month of tournament poker in Las Vegas, Nevada. There is one large tournament series though that any player in the area or tournament circuit regular should not miss. That is the Ninth Annual Five Star World Poker Classic held at the Bellagio.
The series consists of 21 events, highlighted by the World Poker Tour $25,000 Championship beginning on May 14 and the $100,000 Super High Roller beginning on May 18. We all know that every player out there doesn’t have Phil Ivey money, but there are plenty of other events ranging from $500-$5,000 that can fit the bankrolls of most players. The series kicks off on May 6 with Event #1: $500+40 No-Limit Hold’em and Event #2: $500+40 Position Poker No-Limit Hold’em, at 12:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m., respectively. The first of those two is straight forward, but a lot of you may be asking what the heck Position Poker is.
The new poker variant adds a second button to the table. The first button will be standard, determining where the dealer begins pitching the cards and where the small blind and big blind are. The second button will belong to the player who won the previous pot at the table. In some live games with a kill, the player with the kill button gets to act last preflop. The winner’s button in Position Poker will act similar to this, but taken a few steps further. On each street, the player with the winner’s button will be skipped over and given last action, having ultimate position in the hand both pre- and post-flop. The idea of this position-driven poker variant should add plenty of action to the mix. To further attract players, Bellagio will be adding $10,000 to the prize pool.
For a complete look at the Five Star World Poker Classic schedule, click on the image below.
With online poker still dead in the United States as far as the big three sites go and not much else going on in terms of tournaments in Las Vegas, the Bellagio could easily see field sizes soar back to where they were in 2004-2007 where hundreds of players showed up for the preliminary events. We expect the numbers to rise and there’s no reason you shouldn’t be there to take advantage of the increased prize pools at this great tournament series.
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