Full Tilt and Poker Stars 2007 WSOP Satellites Start Today

I got a nice little surprise while cruising around Poker Stars and Full Tilt’s tournament calendars this afternoon. Their 2007 World Series of Poker satellites will start running… TODAY!

Full Tilt’s took a little detective work, as they’re hidden away underneath a tab that still reads “FTOPS” (FTOPS finished up over a week ago). But they’re there. There are satellites to both the Main Event and to the $1500 preliminary events. And they start tonight at 7 PM PST. There isn’t any official WSOP Satellite information to be found on the Full Tilt website as of now (such as how they’ll be registering players at the WSOP given all the UIGEA crap), but supposedly it’ll roll out in a couple of days.

Junkies, tap tap tap that vein and get ready for this:

1K Thursdays: These $1,000+60 MTTs award $12,000 WSOP Main Event packages ($10K for the buyin, $2K in cash for travel, hookers and blow) and take place Thursday evenings at 6 PM PST. There are five different ways to satellite in: $150+10 SNGs, $100+9 MTTs, $75 token MTTs, $26 token MTTs, and a 5,000 Full Tilt Points satellite.

WSOP Bracelet Races: The Bracelet Races pay out $2,000 prize packages that include a $1,500 WSOP Preliminary Event buy-in and $500 cash. It’s the third year Full Tilt has run them, and I luckboxed my way to a $1,500 seat back in 2005 though I came up empty in ’06. Most of them are NLHE of course, though there are $24+2 events in LHE and H.O.R.S.E. on the schedule as of now. Full Tilt is also continuing the “Ladies Only” Bracelet Races they introduced last year. I played at least half a dozen of them last year (my highest finish was something like 8th or 9th) and there’s always at least one or two guys that mistakenly register and go on megatilt when they find out midway through they’re ineligible for the seat.

Here’s a list of the Bracelet Race offerings so far:

$200+16 Bracelet Race. Fridays at 8:59 PM PST. $14+1 turbo freezeout, $14+1 turbo rebuy, $26 turbo and $50+5 turbo satellites available in the hours leading up to the tourney.

$69+6 Bracelet Race. Sundays at 10:30 AM PST and 6:30 PM PST 2 seats guaranteed.

$30+3 rebuy Bracelet Race: Fridays at 6:30 PM PST.

$24+2 Bracelet Race: Saturdays at 10:30 AM PST.

$24+2 Ladies only Bracelet Race: Saturdays at 2 PM PST

$24+2 “Other Games” Bracelet Races: Nightly at 6:30 PM PST

Start collecting those peep tokens, people. It’s gonna be a long spring. I’ll probably give the ladies’ event a shot on Saturday afternoon.

As for Poker Stars, they have so many different ways to win a WSOP Main Event seat it’s ridiculous. There are the Sunday $650 qualifiers that players can satellite into via $16 double shootout, $27 rebuy, or $80 freezeout satellites. There are $320 MTT qualifiers. There are the $160 double shootouts. There are the $33 rebuys. And there are FPP qualifiers.

Stars has an extensive FAQ up on their official website that answers all sorts of questions about logowear, hotel packages, buying in with $W, and how they will be registering players for the WSOP. Oh, wait. They don’t know either.

How, exactly, will you buy players into the WSOP?

We haven’t finalized the details of how we’ll buy players into the WSOP. As soon as we have those details, we’ll let you know. In the meantime, we can reassure you that if you win one of our satellites, you will have a seat in the 2007 WSOP main event.

We had a good number of bloggers play in WSOP events last year. Spaceman, Mrs. Spaceman, Otis, Zeem, Pauly, Gracie, Maudie, Facty, DoubleAs, and Byron all come to mind. And, of course there was Ryan’s Jesus-busting Main Event run for which he took home over $30K.

I was lucky enough to cover the WSOP as a journalist last year and hope to do the same again this summer. But I won’t count out taking a shot at a preliminary event as well. It’s a good goal to shoot for and an even better excuse to get my game out of the rut it’s in and get off the tilt train.

* * * * *

I’m still in Commerce and the 36 players still remaining at the L.A. Poker Classic are about to go on dinner break. Paul Wasicka, Jason Strasser, Kristy Gazes, and J.C. Tran are all still in the hunt. Follow all the action and the antics of Pauly, Amy, Shrink, Shronk, Schecky, and myself over on PokerNews.

And if you think YOU’RE stuck a lot on Neteller, check out Shronk and Schecky’s interview with Isaac Haxton, who is stuck over $800,000 (or, as Pauly pointed out to me over lunch, 4% of the total amount seized by the feds).