The Rec: The good and bad news for recreational players at the 2025 WSOP

New events

On June 22nd my favourite of the new events for this year kicks off: the Battle of the Ages. Flight A is available to every player aged 50 or older, and Flight B is open to every player aged 49 or younger!

The fields combine on day 2, but this is a fun way to stir things up, and it was very considerate of the WSOP staff to schedule Flight A at 10am so the players could still make it to the early-bird special for dinner after bagging. The whipper-snappers in Flight B don’t start until 4pm!

The Tag-Team

An oldie but a goodie, this is hands down the most ‘fun’ tournament environment of the entire series. With all your favorite players and personalities taking turns playing with their partners, that means they are also taking turns hanging out on the rail and chatting with you!

You’ll never find a more relaxed and jovial group of poker players than you will in the aisles and spectator areas of the Tag-Team event, so this is a great time to mingle and chat and rub elbows with poker’s glitterati.

Patrick Leonard and Espen Jorstad made for one formidable Tag Team in 2022.

 The Flip’N’Go is… flippin gone!

I have mixed feelings about this one: while it’s objectively a gimmicky tournament and reduces the skill element of making the money to not much more than blind luck, that means that the field in the money is softer than usual because more ‘bad’ players win their flips and make the money.

This also explains why it was the first WSOP tournament that I ever cashed in myself! I finished in 55th place on my first ever Vegas poker trip just a few years ago, and I’ll always have a soft spot in my heart for that first sweet, sweet WSOP cash. So even though it’s kind of a silly tournament, I am a little verklempt to see it go.

Low buy-In extravaganza

The WSOP does a good job of sprinkling in some sub-$1K tournaments throughout the series, but this year in particular there is a late slate that folks with a recreational bankroll can’t afford to miss!

In the 13 days between June 22 and July 4 there are eight different NLHE bracelet events with buy-ins of $1K or less. If you fired one bullet into all eight tournaments, you would only be out $5,700. That’s an amazing opportunity for recreational bracelet hunters, and that doesn’t even count the $1,500 Millionaire-Maker the weekend before or the $600 Ultrastack and the $777 event that are both the following week.

With its guaranteed big money prize, the Millionaire Maker is always well attended.

Matthew Berglund

SPECIAL OFFERS

• 
• 
• 
• 

The bad

The only flies in the ointment this year are the reduction in the number of freeze-out events, and the higher rake for several different buy-in levels - but particularly for the sub-$1K tournaments.

I hate to see these changes, because 1) freeze-outs are better for recreational players who can’t afford to max-fire every tournament, and 2) these smaller tournaments are the ones that recreational players are by far the most likely to play, and we as a group are the least savvy about things like rising rake and fees.

Of course the operators need to cover their costs and make money, and it makes sense that they have to take a larger percentage from the lower buy-in events: after all, if they took 10% from a $10K that’s $1,000 to pay their dealers and other overhead costs; if they took the same 10% from a $1K that’s only $100 and they still have to pay the dealers, etc. the same no matter what the buy-in is.

So it’s natural for more expensive buy-ins to have lower percentage rake, but it stinks to see the fees going up in the tournaments that attract the players who do the most to grow the game, and a 17% rake is getting closer and closer to boiling the recreational poker frog.

That's my take on the week's big news. Now check out what other players have to say on the 2025 WSOP schedule.

For more on the schedule, as well as tips, FAQs and other info, check out the Ultimate Players' Guide to the 2025 WSOP.

^{Additional image courtesy of PokerGO}