Hold on to your hats, poker fans, the World Series of Poker (WSOP) begins tomorrow!

It’s the 40th annual WSOP and it will take place over the next six weeks at the famed Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, with 57 separate poker tournaments and thousands of poker players from across the USA and around the world.

The first of those tournaments–Event #1 in WSOP-speak–will be a no-limit Texas hold ‘em tournament with a buy-in of $500.

The tournament will only be open to casino employees.

It will the only tourney on Wednesday, the WSOP’s first day, and one of four WSOP tournaments this year that are exclusive (meaning they aren’t open to everyone).

The other exclusive WSOP tounaments will be a women only tourney, a senior tournament open to those aged 50 or over and a special invitational tournament open only to previous winners of the WSOP Main Event.

The 2009 WSOP Main Event, officially Event #57, will be a no-limit Texas hold ‘em tournament with a buy-in of $10,000.

It is to begin on Friday, July 3, 2009.

As was done last year for the first time, Main Event play will again be suspended once a final table of nine players is determined.

After a four-month hiatus, Main Event play will resume in November and play off until a Main Event champ is decided.

WSOP officials instituted the break last year in order to use the four months off to publicize the playing of the final table and the players who make the final table.

The experiment was successful so the WSOP decided to make the four-month break a permanent fixture of the Main Event.

(E-mail Tom Somach at tomsomach@yahoo.com.)