The WSOP Europe schedule has been announced and will again be held in London, which is in Europe, by some strange coincidence.

If you’re not WSOP’ed up and out, or even if you are but can allow two months heal your wounds, the WSOPE will begin on September 19th with four (count ‘em…four) events as follows:

Event 1 - Sept. 19th - 1500 Euro No-Limit Hold’em (3 days)
Event 2 - Sept. 22nd - 2500 Euro H.O.R.S.E. (3 days)
Event 3 - Sept. 24th - 5000 Euro Pot-Limit Omaha (3 days)
Event 4 - Sept. 27th - 10,000 Euro World Championship No-Limit Hold’em (5 days)

All of the above will be bracelet events held at the London Clubs International, and five additional non-bracelet events will be scheduled and announced at a later date.

For the sake of trademarks, the importance of which is pointed out by Wicked Chops, it should be noted that the WSOPE is officially the 2008 World Series of Poker Europe(sm) Presented by Betfair.com.

It’s never too late to start planning for the poker action over the pond.

Harrah’s is running a $1,500 + $70 mega satellite today for the WSOP Europe main event, and also announced the players can go ahead and pre-register here in Vegas at the WSOP cage if they plan to travel to London in September. The event runs Sept. 19-Oct. 2 and includes four events.

What’s happening at the WSOP in Vegas, while some may be planning their itinerary around the WSOP Europe (press release found on page 2).

The $1,500 HORSE event is down to their final table, and Phil Hellmuth is currently in 2nd place as he looks to take down his 12th bracelet. To see if Hellmuth gets that 12th bracelet, you can catch the live updates here. Here’s what the final table will look like as they’re now on their dinner break:

Seat 1: James Schaaf - 392,000
Seat 2: Matt Grapenthien - 46,000
Seat 3: Sam Silverman - 310,000
Seat 4: Phil Hellmuth - 400,000
Seat 5: Jason Dollinger - 346,000
Seat 6: Tommy Hang - 680,000
Seat 7: Victor Ramdin - 78,000
Seat 8: Esther Rossi - 166,000

The $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha World Championship is down to 5 players as they take their dinner break with Marty Smyth recently doubling through Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi to take the chip lead. Kido Pham ran into Mizrachi at the wrong time and was eliminated in 6th place. Follow the action at the wsop.com website here.

Other tournament action, plus the 2008 WSOPE announcement, on page 2:

More…

Mark your calendars before the dollar goes even lower against European currencies … WSOP-Europe 2008 is set for September 19-October 1. Click below for further details and the full press release:

More…

Speaking of women / little girls in poker … here’s an article in The Economist that some of us may have missed last month … about Annette Obrestead’s WSOP-Europe win, and what it means for the game overall, regardless of chromosomes. Gotta wonder what the youngest generation of players thinks about the poker gender gap. My semi-educated guess is that it’s far less relevant to Gen-Y and below.

The latest episode of Beyond the Table is up. Click to listen. In this week’s festive podcast, you’ll hear:

• Dan misses a meeting … too many responsibilities.
• Karridy on the Mathematics of PokerBowl.
• Update on the Karridy vs. Big Robert music video challenge.
• Tom heads out to the California State Poker Championship.
• The resurgent popularity of douchebags?
• Dan runnin’ bad and old men rollin’ bad in Oklahoma.
• BTT improvements.
• Who is Annette_15 and why wasn’t the WSOP Player of the Year at WSOP-Europe?

And if you missed it last week, click here for the Tom Schneider episode of Ante Up! Lots of real content on this show — too much to list, but you will delight in a German guy’s inquiring about Tom’s fondness for the Hammer and the most fascinating recount of a 7-stud Hi-Lo hand I’ve ever heard.

LAS VEGAS - I just received word that I don’t need to be here for a potential press release (don’t ask, no hints, more on that later hence the expression…press release). After my brain realized my soul was granted freedom from the media room/The Rio/The WSOP/Las Vegas/Sao Paulo and The Tilted Kilt… my body crashed. In fact, I’m having difficulty holding my eyes open at this point. It has been 47 fun filled days of poker camp in the media room in what could best be described as…sitting in the back of the bus with my new fun brothers. Yes, it was fun but now, like every end of the WSOP, it’s “Time To Say Goodbye.”

The field has dwindled, the celebrities are gone, the halls are quiet and the only line you’ll see here is senior citizens at the buffet at 6pm. A handful of pros are still fighting for gold but the rest are new faces looking to be the new champ. There is still a buzz in the Amazon…all-in players standing on chairs with ten ESPN cameras zooming around, clapping, slapping on backs and the occasional waiter calling water, coffee, red bull? Gary Wise and Lacey Jones are still with camera but Mr. Peanut is gone.

Don’t fret…WSOP Europe will offer three bracelets in London this fall. Hmmm, London or Tunica? Tunica or London? For now, the closest I’ll be to London is flying over Big Ben on the Peter Pan ride as I’m off to Disneyland with my children.

As always…I don’t leave Vegas without getting a bit sappy with this below…

LAS VEGAS–We’ve got a doozy brewing in the final points event of the 2007 WSOP … with much more on the line than a single bracelet in the $5,000 No-Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball w/ Rebuys.

With 60 players remaining …

Tom Schneider, WSOP Player of the Year points leader, is currently 3rd in chips. Jeff Lisandro, who is only 20 points behind him, is currently 4th in chips. (Phil Hellmuth is also still alive in 2-7 Lowball, but he is a below-average stack, and has never made a WSOP final table in a non-hold’em game … so not much of a threat.)

Click here to follow along.

UPDATE: Players are on dinner break, and Lisandro has jumped into the chip lead. Tom is 6th in chips. Also kinda interesting that Tony G — the man behind the money behind PokerNews.com — is second in chips. Wonder if it’s too late for Tom to hire someone to pull a Nancy Kerrigan on Lisandro’s ass.

Lisandro reportedly wants Player of the Year so badly that he was willing to invest $100k in this event. Tom took a more fiscally conservative approach — taking a rebuy and double add-on for $20,000 total.

Not only does WSOP Player of the Year come with a certain amount of cache, but also it comes with extra cash. The winner receives an automatic buy-in to next year’s main event ($10,000), a buy-in to a circuit main event of his choice ($5,000), entry into the WSOP Europe main event ($10,000), and $5,000 in walking-around-money … adding up to a mano-y-mano lasts-longest battle for essentially a $30,000 overlay and any added business goodies that go with Player of the Year accolades.

More…

This year, to cram in 55 events, Harrah’s added several 5 pm bracelet tournaments. I’ve been told by an unreliable source the new schedule allows players to bust from the noon (usually) No-Limit Hold’em events then register for the afternoon tournaments (usually) Stud, Omaha and Limit Hold’em.

Here is the problem, limit tournaments take a long time to lose players which means you need a good 14 hours to make it to the money with a large field (1200-ish) and possibly more with a small field (300-ish). Last year when playing in a noon limit event you could make it to the money by 2 or 3am, however, this year the door to the vault doesn’t open until close to the end of day two. Unfortunately, this prevents players from playing in the noon event the following day.

While having a NL event first provides earlier eliminations at a faster rate, limit events at 5pm are just a little too late.
IMHO.

Mentioned in a previous post that WSOP Europe is on its way — this year no less. Makes me wonder … considering the legal battle Harrah’s is waging for control of WSOP.com (Frederico Schiavio is still fighting away), can we expect similar Big Casino arm-twisting for WSOPEurope.com?

As it stands now, WSOPEurope is a semi-shill site, declaring power to the amateur pub-league players on the other poker continent. But it is based in another continent, too. Stay tuned …

Dorkin’ out with the cushy headphones on … just came across an interesting interview over at Poker Podcast World. (via Shamus.)

Click here to hear Max Shapiro breakin’ down with WSOP tourney director Jack Effel.

Max Shapiro = the Diane Rehm of poker?

In this episode, Jack talks about the efforts the WSOP is going through to unionize? ensure a highest standard of dealer and floor personnel. Apparently last year’s complaints were heard loud and clear. He also reveals that a new WSOP Europe could see cards in the air as soon as September 2007. Harrah’s has other plans in the works, Effel says, for spreading the WSOP brand to the Middle East and Asia as well … coming soon: WSOP-Macau.

Oh, he also makes his “prediction” for the size of the 2007 main event field. It will certainly “grow,” says Effel, or maybe “decline a little bit.” He puts the over/under at somewhere between 7,000 and 11,000, and specifically pshaws the number set by Pokerati.