The entire poker community is buzzing after the full schedule of the 2012 World Series of Poker was announced yesterday. Each year the organisers attempt to make the series bigger and better than before and it looks like they are attempting to do that this year by lowering the buy-ins for the majority of the events.

Gone is the $25,000 No Limit Hold’em Heads-Up event that Jake Cody won last year to complete his Triple Crown and it is replaced with a $10,000 buy-in equivalent. In fact in this year’s series there are only seven so-called Championship events with a $10,000 buy-in but there are scores of events that only cost $1,500 so it looks like Harrah’s and the WSOP are looking to bring the longest-running festival back down to a level that is affordable to the masses, like how the WSOP should be in the eyes of many poker fans.

There are a total of 23 tournaments that have a buy-in of $1,500 out of the total 61 events being played this year. Of those 61 events all but four will awarded a coveted gold WSOP bracelet, the Seniors event (for over 50s), the Ladies event, and two special events known as the Doubles event and the the Bracelet Bounty.

Some of the highlights include a No Limit Hold’em Four-handed tournament (Event #28), The $50,000 Poker Players Championship (Event #45) and of course the $10,000 Main Event that runs for 10-days starting on Sunday 7 July. But the eyes of the poker media and indeed all forms of media around the world will be on the event that kicks of at 1:11 in the afternoon on July 1, The Big One for Big Drop.

This particular tournament costs a staggering $1,000,000 to enter, with 11.11%, or $111,111 of that entry fee going to the Big Drop charity that was set up by multi-billionaire Guy Laliberte. The charity revolves around educating developing countries on how to protect and manage the precious resource that is water along with providing wells and fresh water to the most drought-stricken areas of the world.

The 2012 WSOP kicks off at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino at 12:00 on Sun 27 May with the $500 Casino Employees event with the first public event taking place on Monday 28 May at 12:00, a $1,500 No Limit Hold’em tournament. I for one cannot wait for Jack Effel to announce “shuffle up and deal!”