Change to the WSOP 2010-2011 Circuit?

Stumbled across this article, talking about how this past circuit was the lowest turnout they have seen in all the WSOP circuits:

http://www.ozpoker.net.au/poker-news...e-wsop-circuit

I bet putting the circuits, at least, on local tv would bring more people to the events.

I also found this; The Horseshoe in Council Bluff has a circuit event listed for the middle-end of August.. but they usually don't announce circuit events until towards the end of the WSOP in Vegas, and they usually don't start until September or October....... thought this was a bit strang:

http://www.horseshoecouncilbluffs.co...+CIRCUIT+EVENT

These tournaments had three things going for them when they started - TV coverage, a lack of competition and the prestige of the WSOP brand.

Without the TV coverage they've become just another tournament series... which says some interesting things about the WSOP's brand equity. There's also a lot more competition these days from things like the NAPT, LAPT and whatever other poker tours are getting about and most of them have TV coverage as well as backing from brands (Stars) that are equally as big as the WSOP.

The only thing that'll make a difference is putting it back on TV, IMO. And even then they'll have to entice the big name players back because does anybody really want to watch another friends and family shove-fest?

The other solutions discussed don't really make a lot of sense. You can't have bigger prize pools without more players, unless you're willing to eat big losses on overlays and they already give out so many bracelets that they're starting to become meaningless so I'm afraid I've got to agree with Hellmuth on that point.

My opinion: Harrah's either spends a boatload of money promoting the circuit, linking it more strongly to the WSOP brand and getting it back on TV or it'll be gone in the next couple of years.

I thought the circuits gave out rings to the winners instead of bracelets.. or is that just for the circuit's main event?

Gotta be honest, I haven't paid any attention to them since they were last televised. But last I checked yeah, they gave out rings instead of bracelets to the winners of the televised tournaments. Don't know if winners of the support events at each event got rings either... hell, I didn't even know there were support events until now :P

lol.. I'm gonna try and hit up the WSOP circuit in Council Bluffs in August and check it out there.. see, what's going on, maybe play in an event or two.

I think they still give out rings to all circuit event winners (even the $200+ prelim players). A friend of mine played in a $1K circuit event at Harrah's in '07 and they had a ring for that one.

It's possible the Council Bluffs tourney was moved to August to accommodate Harrah's in Chester, PA having a circuit event. As PA will begin their table games in the next month.

An update. Harrahs has made an announcement and it seems they're going largely along the lines we discussed above: there'll be a championship at the end of the event, to be held in Vegas right before next year's WSOP, that will have TV coverage and award a genuine WSOP bracelet. They've secured TV coverage for some of the prelim $10K buy-in events as well.

Now all they have to do is get some name-brand pros onto the final tables and maybe they'll get somewhere...

http://wickedchopspoker.com/wsop-cir...-championship/

Why didn't you just look on the front page where I posted this information yesterday?

WSOP 2010-2011 Circuit Tour Schedule