The World’s longest-running and biggest poker tournament series will run May 31 to July 19, 2011 at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas with a grand total of 58 bracelet events over 50 days – one more than 2010.

This year the festivities begin with a new $25,000 Heads-Up No Limit Hold’em Championship open to a maximum of 256 players.

The first weekend of the series, June 4-5, will feature another of the extremely popular $1,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em events that have seen as many as 6,000 entrants. This first $1k will hold two starting days Saturday and Sunday.

Throughout the month of June the weekends will feature affordable buy-in No Limit Hold’em tournaments, including $1,500 events on Saturdays and $1,000 events on Sundays.

Another multiple starting day $1k will be held July 2nd and 3rd and the final $1,000 tournament of the series runs July 5.

Other highlights include new tournaments like the $2,500 buy-in 10-Game Mix/Six-Handed event and the $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha/Six-Handed event, plus the return of the $2,500 Omaha/Seven Card Stud Hi-Low 8 or Better tournament.

The $50K Poker Players Championship won by Michael Mizrachi in 2010 returns July 2 and is expected to draw some of the best in the game to play 8-Game and compete for the Chip Reese Memorial Trophy.

Once again there is a Seniors-Only and Ladies-Only Championship, plus a second Triple Chance tournament will be on offer.

Of course, the 2011 WSOP will conclude with the $10,000 Main Event set to begin Thursday, July 7 and reach the final table of nine on Tuesday, July 19.

Once again, the Main Event will host four starting flights and the November Nine will play out Nov. 5-7 before a live audience at the Penn & Teller Theater inside the Rio with ESPN coverage running Nov. 8.

“Something for everyone is the best way to describe the 2011 World Series of Poker schedule,” said WSOP Tournament Director Jack Effel

“It’s staggering to think that last year alone the WSOP hosted nine of the 17 largest tournaments in poker history. We had 44 events produce more than a $1 million prize pool, so we can’t wait to get at it again and offer players at all levels the best poker action on the planet.”

The entire convention center at the Rio will be dedicated to the 2011 WSOP again this year, with tables in the 58,000 square foot Pavilion and the 38,000 square-foot Amazon Room.

Bracelet tournaments will begin at noon and 5 p.m. PT every day with a maximum of 10-one hour levels being played for the 12 p.m. starts and a maximum of eight one-hour levels for the late events.

Re-starts for noon bracelet events will be at 2:30 p.m. and 5 p.m. events begin again at 3 PM with a maximum of 10 levels being played each day until the bracelet is handed out.

Registration for all bracelet events will remain open through four levels or until they are sold out – twice as long as the past – with the Main Event still sticking to the old two level rule.

Pre-registration is available on-site at the Rio and online through www.WSOP.com beginning Feb. 7, 2011.

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A 25-year old online poker pro from nearby Norman, Oklahoma booked a win at the World Series of Poker Circuit event at the Choctaw Resort and Casino in Durant, Oklahoma Monday.

Huy Nguyen pushed past a field of 808 mostly local players from Oklahoma and Texas to collect a $232,706 first-place prize.

Although names like Berry Johnston, Tommy Vedes, Allen Kessler, Tom McEvoy, Ylon Schwartz and WSOPC National Championship points leaders Brett Schwertley and Kevin Calenzo were scattered amongst the field.

The $1,600 event’s massive field played down to 174 players on Day 1 and 14 on Day 2 with the final table set just a few hours into the third day.

After the overnight leader busted, Nguyen took a sizeable lead into the final and never really looked back, eventually getting to heads up with a 7:1 chip lead over Traci Brown, who finished 11th in the WSOP Ladies event this summer.

After making quick work of Brown, the online poker pro booked the title and an automatic entry into the WSOP Circuit National Championship $1 million freeroll in Las Vegas this May, but Nguyen may not have seen the last of her.

Brown won the Choctaw WSOP Circuit Casino Championship and also earned a seat in the Championship.

Here’s how the final 10 finished up at Choctaw:

1 Huy Nguyen $232,706

2 Traci Brown $143,462

3 Shallum Lynch $105,764

4 Jeff Gibralter $78,828

5 Bobby Hempkins $59,537

6 Drazen Ilich $45,552

7 Victor Haynes $35,290

8 Andrew Watson $27,680

9 Robert Cheung $21,979

10 Charles Moore $17,662

After four years in London, England, The World Series of Poker Europe is headed to France.

Lucien Barrière Hôtels & Casinos and BarrierePoker.fr became the official French sponsors and hosts of the World Series Of Poker Europe Wednesday, inking a deal with Caesars Interactive Entertainment that will see the WSOPE move to Cannes in 2011.

The event will be rebranded as World Series of Poker Europe Presented by BarierePoker.fr and seven regional qualifying tournaments will be created across France in the form of the the Barrière Poker Tour 2011.

“This is a unique agreement between two casino leaders with great brands,” said Caesars Interactive Entertainment CEO Mitch Garber.

“Lucien Barrière Hôtels & Casinos is a well-run organization and we are excited to work with them to access the French market with high-quality and reputable poker events both in their hotels and casinos, and online with BarrierePoker.fr.”

Serving as qualifying rounds for the WSOPE, the Barrière Poker Tour 2011 will start this April in seven Lucien Barrière casino properties including Toulouse, Nice, Lille, Dinard, Enghien, Trouville and Bordeaux.

The WSOPE will then be held in Cannes at the Casino Barrière de Cannes Croisette and the Hôtel Majestic Barrière Oct. 7-21, in new facilities offering much more space than the Casino at the Empire in London’s Leicester Square.

Organizers say there is space for 75 tables – double the capacity of the 2010 WSOPE.

Seven WSOP gold bracelets will be up for grabs.

The deal has an online poker component as well, with BarrierePoker.fr becoming the exclusive French operator of online official qualifying rounds for the Barrière Poker Tour 2011, WSOP Europe and the 2011 WSOP in Las Vegas.

€200,000 sounds like a lot of money to most of us. But most of us did not just win $8.9 million and the World Series of Poker Main Event title just a few short months ago.

Canadian Jonathan Duhamel did, but still seemed happy to be adding another €200,000+ to the growing pile of cash in his poker bankroll with a win in the PokerStars EPT Deauville High Roller event in France this weekend.

“I’m so happy right now, I love poker,” he said. “200k Euros is definitely nice, but the feeling to win again a big one is even better.”

The World Champion became a champion again getting the best of the 58-player field who entered the €10,000 event creating a €556,800 prize pool.

While online poker pro Joe Cada failed to make much live in the year following his Main Event win, outside of an 11th place finish in the 2010 PCA High Roller event, there is some recent history of Main Event winners having big Januarys.

Two years ago, the now retired Peter Eastgate booked a win in a $5k side event at the PCA for more than $300k.

Duhamel cashed €203,232 for the Deauville win and will next play live in the November Nine reunion as a part of the Foxwoods Casino Mega Stack Challenge XIX on Feb. 8 in Connecticut.

Amongst all the other news, we missed this sad item from last week: Jack Ury died at his home in Terra Haute, Indiana. Jack is fondly remembered in the poker community as being the oldest-ever participant in the World Series of Poker Main Event. His first trip was in 2007 when 94-year-old travelled to Vegas with his grandson. Despite being wheelchair-bound and only having only 20% of his vision in one eye, he managed to take on the first day’s 16-hour marathon with nary a blink.

He was eliminated from the tournament early in Day 2, but everybody who was there remembers his words as he left. “I can’t walk, I can’t see, can’t hear, but I can still play poker! I’ll be back again next year… if I’m still alive!”

And he was. The affection the poker world had for him only grew when he slow-rolled Stephen Friedlander in the 2009 WSOP Main Event on day 1D with a superior full house and got coverage on the World Series of Poker broadcasts that year.

Jack was married to his wife Elizabeth for over 60 years before her death in 2008 and the two had an extended family that ran into great-great-grandchildren. He served in the Navy during World War II and afterwards became a postal worker.

Rest in Peace, Jack. If only we all get to experience what you did in our lifetimes.

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