ATLANTIC CITY, NJ – April 1, 2014 – The tenth season of the WSOP Circuit will wrap up under the bright lights of the ESPN cameras with the WSOP National Championship – an official WSOP gold bracelet event and a share of $1,000,000+ in prize money on the line – from May 22-24, 2014 in Atlantic City at the brand new WSOP-branded Bally’s Atlantic City poker room.

With land-based stops remaining in North Carolina, Iowa, Philadelphia, Colorado and New Orleans in the coming months, ten players are still to be added to the automatic qualifiers list (44 entries total), with 50 additional players earning their seat via at-large bid for accumulating the most points on the 22-stop WSOP Circuit tour that began back in August, 2013 in Connecticut and runs through the Harrah’s New Orleans stop from May 8-19, 2014. (Latest point standings list here)

With a total of 100 players eligible for qualification, the World Series of Poker today announces how the additional six remaining at-large seats will be awarded.

In May, WSOP.com websites in both Nevada and New Jersey will host an online freeroll tournament in their respective states, where the winner of each tournament will automatically qualify (2 seats total). To participate in the freeroll, players must simply make a deposit during the month of April. Once a deposit is made, players will receive a freeroll tournament ticket. The Nevada online freeroll will take place on May 10, while the New Jersey online offering will occur May 17. This promotion is known as the WSOP National Championship Seat Freeroll.

In addition, both WSOP.com in Nevada and New Jersey will run mirrored knockout tournaments online from April 20 to May 3, dubbed the Knockout Series with the end result being one additional winner from each state being represented in the WSOP National Championship (2 seats). To qualify, players may enter any of the 14 consecutive nightly tournaments in the Knockout Series and walk away the victor. The 14 individual tournament winners will each then be free-rolled into the 14-person Knockout Series Champions Freeroll taking place on May 4, where the winner of that freeroll earning the WSOP National Championship seat.  

Then, Bally’s Atlantic City, to showcase their brand-new tournament room, will host a live tournament freeroll on Monday, May 19 at 6:00 PM, with the winner of the event automatically earning a seat into the WSOP National Championship (1 seat).

On Tuesday, May 20, Bally’s Atlantic City will then host a $1,125 “last-chance” two-day structured live No-Limit Hold’em tournament, with the winner taking home the lion’s share of the prize pool, but also the final seat awarded into the WSOP National Championship (1 seat).

This will bring the list of WSOP National Championship players to 100, who will all have earned their seat and shot at the WSOP National Championship title. 

“We look forward to welcoming the best poker players in the world to Atlantic City and our brand new poker room at Bally’s,” said Kevin Ortzman, general manager of the property. “We are dedicated to making our new room the best in New Jersey, and are excited for players to see all the great things happening in Atlantic City with the convergence of online and land-based gaming.”

Special poker player room rates at Caesars properties in New Jersey have been established beginning at $69 (subject to availability). 

In addition, the 100 players atop the WSOP World Rankings (see here) are eligible to buy-into this event for $10,000 as a result of their performance at all WSOP gold bracelet events over the previous two calendar years. Any of these players that do buy-in will have their $10,000 directly added to the prize pool rake-free along with the $1,000,000 being put up by the WSOP for this event. 

So the final list of entries will fall between 100-200 and the prize pool will end up between $1-2 million.

The three-day WSOP National Championship No-Limit Hold’em tournament will get underway at 12 noon on Thursday, May 22 in the Bally’s Atlantic City poker room with all eligible players. ESPN cameras will be on hand to cover the action with the final table taking place on Saturday, May 24 – Memorial Day Weekend.

“The WSOP National Championship is really about toasting the most consistent and dedicated players of the World Series of Poker brand,” said WSOP Executive Director Ty Stewart. “They have shown strong performance across our events and we’re delighted to provide a platform in Atlantic City for the first time to showcase and award these championship caliber players.”

Each WSOP Circuit stop Main Event winner received an automatic berth into the WSOP Circuit National Championship. Automatic seats also go to the “Casino Champions” at each participating venue. A Casino Champion is defined as the player at each stop who accumulates the most points throughout the 12-event gold ring schedule. 

The 2012-13 WSOP Circuit Tour was the largest tournament series in the nine-year WSOP Circuit history. The WSOP Circuit had nearly 80,000 entries in official “Ring Events” and saw the average Main Event winner receive $197,535. The tenth season is so far tracking on record-breaking pace.

The remaining 2013-14 schedule is as follows:

Circuit schedules are subject to change. Stops may be added or removed. For more information on individual circuit events, including event schedules and structure sheets, can be found at each property website or by visiting www.WSOP.com

*The WSOP Circuit Events and culminating championship are subject to tournament rules and restrictions to be released at a later date. The timing, number and location of events are subject to change and all applicable gaming regulations.