Five Burning Questions as the 2025 WSOP Begins
The poker world will be squarely focused on the 2025 World Series of Poker starting on Tuesday. Here are five burning questions that players and fans will look to answer over the next seven weeks.
Welcome to Christmas morning for poker players and fans. The 2025 World Series of Poker starts in just a few hours. Over the next 51 days of action ther are 100 gold bracelets up for grabs. As poker players make their annual pilgrimage to Las Vegas to chase poker glory and history, here are five burning questions about the 2025 World Series of Poker.
What will the first WSOP under GGPoker ownership look like?
Last August, the worst kept secret in poker became reality when Caesars Entertainment announced they had agreed to sell the World Series of Poker to NSUS Group, the parent company of GGPoker. The deal had been in the works for some time and was made official (lawyers crossing t’s and dotting i’s and such) in late October. Speculation began immediately as to what this could mean for players as GGPoker owner Michael Kim would be looking to put his personal stamp on poker’s most beloved brand.
The first thing that every player will notice this year is the WSOP+ app is available - and required - for the Las Vegas events for the first time. This is unquestionably a step forward made possible because of the GGPoker development team. The product, which was used at WSOP Paradise the last two years, should eliminate a number of longstanding WSOP player friction points, such as long registration lines and limited options for buying in. It’s also going to put more WSOP-focused content front and center with players and fans alike.
There are likely to be other new wrinkles and sprinkles for poker players this year as the Series rolls on. There could also be some growing pains as well. The reality is that GGPoker has had some level of influence on the WSOP product since at least 2020 when it ran the highly successful WSOP Online during the COVID shutdown. The advent of WSOP Paradise was driven almost exclusively by Kim and the immensely popular mystery bounty events that have been on the WSOP schedule since 2022 were driven by the software created by NSUS.
Will Daniel Negreanu Have a ‘Good Time’ this Summer?
Last summer, Daniel Negreanu won the $50,000 Poker Players Championship for his seventh career bracelet and first in 10 years and you could almost see the 500 pound monkey falling off his back as he held the bracelet up. In a recent interview with PokerNews, Negreanu promised he was going into the 2025 WSOP with a new outlook with shifting priorities and it might just be because he no longer feels the pressure of trying to break that slump.
"This year, I'm going in with a little bit of a different attitude. I'm going to have some wine. I don't normally do that, but I've been enjoying that. Some days, I might golf with the old guys at the club at 9:30 and then go play a little later. I want to have a well-rounded series, because I think it's summer camp for all of us poker players. I want to have a great fun summer."
He also indicated that he expects to have “some bracelet wins” as well, which means the competitive side of him isn’t going anywhere. It’s unclear what a successful summer is for Negreanu now though. Is it a bracelet win (or two)? Is it a positive ROI Series? Is it some sort of intangible that includes his time at the tables, golf, and quality of life?
Poker fans who feel like they’ve been able to tag along for the ride through his vlogs the last few years have nothing to worry about. He’s promised those are coming back and given his shift to have some sort of work-life balance during the WSOP, he’ll probably find a way to include glimpses of that in the final product.
What happens when a player breaks one of the new rules?
In the wake of the controversy that followed Jonathan Tamayo’s Main Event win last year, where he was apparently getting assistance from his rail with access to Real-Time Assistance, the WSOP made changes to their rules just before WSOP Paradise and have now updated their rules for the Las Vegas series regarding electronic devices and coaching during play.
Players will be prohibited from having their device once the tournament they’re playing is down to three tables. Players who access a device after this point face penalties that could include a disqualification. That makes it difficult for players to get real-time information from friends or family watching the stream and means tools like solvers aren’t going to be a few taps on a screen away.
Players are also no longer able to go to rail for coaching at any point during a tournament. A single line added to Rule 116 of the WSOP Rules states players are not allowed to “Discuss strategy with an outside source at any time while the tournament clock is running, and participants are not on break.”
As is the case with any new rule, the real drama begins when somebody breaks it. Either the player didn’t know about the rule, forgot about the rule, or has a different interpretation of the rule than WSOP officials. Either way, how floor staff punish a player if either of these new rules is broken is definitely worth watching.
Will WSOP field sizes be impacted by the ‘Trump Slump’?
The number of tourists coming to the United States in 2025 is down year-over-year thanks to what some experts are calling the “Trump Slump”. In March, 11.8% fewer tourists traveled to the United States than the same period in 2024. This is likely to impact the WSOP this year as foreign players decide to play fewer events or skip the Series entirely.
Several European countries have warned their citizens that United States authorities may deny entry even with a visa or entry waiver. There is also some confusion about the directive the Trump administration has given to enforce the fingerprint requirement for US visitors under the Alien Registration Act. The warnings and the lack of definitive answers from official sources on travel requirements might just make it easier for recreational non-American players to not travel to Las Vegas this year.
The likely outcome is that the events in June suffer a Y/Y drop, but by the time July and the WSOP Main Event come around, players suffering from FOMO will decide to get on a plane and make the trip, creating a possible sweat for another 10,000+ player field in poker’s most celebrated event.
Could Phil Hellmuth actually skip the Main Event?
In February, 17-time WSOP bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth announced that due to the long days required, he would not play the WSOP Main Event this year for the first time since he debuted in 1988. For those that doubted him, his longtime agent Brian Balsbaugh tweeted that the 60-year-old was “not bluffing. He’s not grandstanding. He’s sad about it. “
The basis of Hellmuth’s reasoning is that playing 12+ hours per day for “6-7” days straight disproportionately affects older players. While there was definitely some support from the poker community for Hellmuth’s take, it was also quickly pointed out that Hellmuth hasn’t had to worry about the long days after Day 1 or Day 2 in the Main Event in some time.
It’s hard to imagine Hellmuth, who has made the WSOP Main Event a big part of his personality and his persona over the entirety of his career, not deciding to play this year after all. Just a few weeks after making his plans known, Hellmuth was playing on the Champions Club Texas Cash Festival livestream when he admitted part of the reason he wants the schedule to change is because he can’t win it with the current structure while also bemoaning the fact that he’d have to skip the grand entrance.
Everybody knows that Hellmuth has a very well-documented love of the spotlight. Not playing in the event where that spotlight shines brightest doesn’t make much sense for Hellmuth. WSOP officials have gone out of their way for years now to accommodate Hellmuth’s grand entrances and he clearly felt some level of conflict about not being able to have that moment this year.
It seems that Hellmuth is already beginning to have a change of heart - or is he?. On the eve of the WSOP, the ‘Poker Brat’ posted a video on his X account suggesting he might just play the Main Event after all (and move his boycott to 2026) but wanted to give fans a chance to vote.
By Tuesday morning, the video and the follow up poll had been deleted. If you had to bet on whether or not Hellmuth plays the Main Event this year, you’d have to think that “Yes” would be an overwhelming favorite at this point.
Get Hyped with The Overlay’s Week 1 Playlist on Spotify
Each week of the 2025 WSOP, The Overlay will include a specially curated Spotify playlist to help you get hyped every day. This week’s playlist includes Travis Scott, Guns N’ Roses, Outkast, and Fleetwood Mac amongst others.