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Gambling911.com sits down with the head honcho at the WSOP to get the full scoop.
LAS VEGAS--Just call them the "October Octet."
One of the big changes at this year's World Series of Poker (WSOP)--which got underway earlier this week--is that for the first time since the Main Event initiated a four-month break, play will resume in October, not November.
For the past few years, in an effort to increase both suspense and publicity for the WSOP's signature event, which begins in July, the Main Event has suspended play after it reached a final table of nine players and then resumed in November.
Those lucky nine players who managed to make the WSOP Main Event's final table became known as the "November Nine," a catchy, alliterative phrase that got picked up by the media at large and is now a permanent part of poker parlance.
The four-month hiatus allowed the "November Nine" to do media interviews in the run-up to the resumption of final table play, generating increased publicity for the Main Event to such an extent that WSOP officials have made the break a permanent fixture of the $10,000 buy-in, no-limit Texas hold 'em tournament.
But this year, after the Main Event final table is set, play will resume not in November but in October, a month earlier than usual.
And since play will no longer resume in November, the final table members rightly can no longer be called the "November Nine."
What is the WSOP to do?
Gambling 911, in an exclusive interview earlier this week with the WSOP's official spokesman, Seth Palansky, asked him about this dilemma and whether it might be feasable to have an eight-player final table for the Main Event this year, so the finalists could be called the "October Octet."
"The 2016 WSOP Main Event will get underway on July 9 and continue until July 18, when we will take the traditional break after the final table has been set," Palansky told Gambling 911.
"Play will then resume on October 30 and play out over the 30th, the 31st and November 1st, until a winner is determined," he said. "The reason everything was moved up this year is because of the presidential election. We didn't want to conflict with that."
The WSOP normally likes to resume the Main Event on the second Sunday in November and continue it through the second Tuesday in November, he said.
But, this year, the second Tuesday in November--which is November 8--is the date for the presidential general election, and the WSOP doesn't want the television coverage of its final day, when the winner is crowned, to go up against the massive TV coverage of the election, Palansky said.
"So we moved everything up a week," he said.
But what about the issue of the final table members no longer being able to be called the "November Nine," since final table play will resume in October this year?
Could the WSOP have an eight-player final table this year instead of the normal nine players, which would then allow the WSOP to still have a catchy and alliterative nickname for the finalists--the "October Octet"?
"The final table for the 2016 WSOP Main Event will have nine players as usual," Palansky told Gambling 911.
"And despite resuming play in October, we will retain the 'November Nine' moniker for those who make the final table," he said. "The term is too much a part of the Main Event to discard it now."
By Tom Somach
Gambling 911 Staff Writer
tomsomach@yahoo.com
