Rio to Celebrate 50th Annual WSOP in 2019. The Rio All Suites Hotel & Casino will host the 2019 WSOP next summer, which will mark the 50th Annual World Series of Poker. The WSOP has been held at the Rio since its final full year at Binion’s Horeshoe, when Greg Raymer won the Main Event in 2004.
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After a week of 12-plus hour days grinding away at the felt in the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino, the 2019 World Series of Poker Main Event has come down to nine players. Nine players and one will walk away with $10 million and poker immortality.
Five North Americans and four Europeans. An EPT champion with a monstrous chip lead. A poker industry lifer who crushes the WSOP Main Event. A nosebleed regular with over $8 million in cashes. A little-known software engineer who busted a legend with the semi-bluff shove heard 'round the poker world.
Each has his own story, but they all have one thing in common: they've spent the past week making their way through a field of 8,569, and they all earned the right to play for $10 million on poker's grandest stage.
Have a look at how the players stack up coming into the Final Table.
The favorite heading into the final table appears to be German-based EPT reg Hossein Ensan. With more than $2.6 million in cashes, including an EPT Prague title, few could have imagined the lead with which Ensan would end Day 7.
Second in chips but certainly not in the hearts of a robust rail, Garry Gates had the well wishes of many a high roller coming his way from the poker Twitterverse. They're familiar with Gates from his years working in the industry, formerly with PokerNews and for the past 10 years helping run PokerStars' live events and VIP services. Mike McDonald Pretty much Nailed it with this tweet. I'm not a big believer in karma but my god after so many years of putting up with every single high roller diva in poker my god @GarryGates deserved that ace on the river and 10 million dollars of poker player money that are going to follow!
Zhen Cai with 60.6 million is the only other player anywhere near Gates and Ensan. One player nobody wants to see gain any momentum is high-stakes pro Dario Sammartino. The Italian with the piercing stare and $8 million in cashes would be the clear favorite, all things being equal. Luckily for everyone else, all things aren't evened out, and he sits sixth in the counts with a little more than thirty big blinds.
However, plenty of play remains as even the shortest stacks — belonging to start-of-day leader Marchington and Day 6 giant slayer Timothy Su — are good for twenty big blinds. In the WSOP Main Event's famously slow structure, they'll have a bit of time to look for a spot to double right back into contention.
Nine players remain, and each will be hoping he's the one that will walk away with ten million dollars and pokers biggest prize. And Lucky for us, we all have a seat to watch 3 days of the most exciting tournament all year. You can watch the action on ESPN 2 at 7pm or you can get all the LIVE hand for hand action with us here on PokerNews.com
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A recent Tweet has once again claimed that the Rio All-Suites Hotel & Casino is in the process of being sold. The Tweet also mentions that after the sale, the off-Strip property will be demolished. However, according to an email from top Caesars personnel, the report is false and the Rio remains a property in good standing in the Caesars portfolio.
Twitter user @LasVegasLocally tweeted out the information. The Tweet failed to identify anything about the source of the news.
Source: The @RioVegas is in the process of being sold and will soon be demolished.
— Las Vegas Locally ???? (@LasVegasLocally) April 11, 2019
The official response
I reached out to a World Series of Poker (WSOP) spokesperson at Caesars to find out if the rumor might be true. As expected, the spokesperson declined to comment directly about the Tweet itself.
However, the WSOP representative stated emphatically that the World Series of Poker would take place at the Rio this year. In fact, they went so far as to assert that the Rio will host next year’s edition of the series, too.
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Rio is often target of sale rumors
The spokesperson’s comments mirrored their communications with me in a similar incident last August. In that instance, Vital Vegas reported that the Rio would soon change hands.
You know those persistent rumors of Rio sale? Next level chatter happening, Caesars seriously shopping this fixer-upper.
— Vital Vegas (@VitalVegas) August 3, 2018
Rio has always been one of CIE’s lesser-known properties. Its position off-Strip and lack of memorable theme lends itself to being forgotten in the constellation of Las Vegas casinos. As such, there is often talk of a Rio sale.
The WSOP move changed RIO’s trajectory
However, the Rio is home to the WSOP, and the Series’ 2005 move to the casino was likely a measure to raise the casino’s profile. At that point, Rio shed its reputation as a somewhat nondescript member of the Caesars family.
It became an important property as the home of the world most prestigious poker tournament series. Since the move to the larger casino (from Binion’s), the WSOP has undergone profound and expansive growth.
The hotel was, thus, a sort of oddity for poker players. On the one hand, it was a casino property that did not feature any improvement upon the poker action available along the Strip. So, there was little reason to make the extra effort to visit most of the year.
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On the other hand, during the early summer months, it became Mecca for the poker world. Many top poker players and millions of recreational players performed their version of Hajj to compete for the coveted gold bracelets.
Caesars probably hoped that the throngs of players that the Series generated would carry over into the rest of the year. However, the top professionals and, therefore, the rest of the poker world have tended to gravitate towards higher-end properties like Bellagio and Aria most of the time.
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Caesars may have bigger fish to fry
Of course, it’s possible that Caesars is not terribly concerned about a Rio sale at this moment. The New York Postreports that the entire company will be for sale within a week or two.
We’ll explore the ramifications and possibilities for a potential sale next week. But, if the reports are true, the last thing that company management would worry about is the divestiture of one of its smaller property assets.