The poker tables are heating up this summer at the WSOP 2010 event at the Rio in Las Vegas

The 2010 World Series of Poker has begun, the 41st Annual event that started May 27th and will go until July 8th. 51 days of poker playing is underway and the poker games are taking place at the Rio All-Suites Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas with 57 bracelet events in all with a 20% increase in tables in action to ease capacity concerns from 2009.

Both single-table and multi-table satellites will be broadcasted from ESPN and is a news source where poker players can find the televised schedule of the 2010 World Series of Poker. Televised events will broadcast on ESPN starting late July of 2010.

The Casino Employees No-Limit Texas Hold'em tournament kicked off as the first event of the year.

There was a $500 buy-in and Hoai Pham, a poker dealer from San Diego was the winner, taking home the large sum of $71,000.A new tournament this year, the $50,000 Player's Championship which replaces the $50,000 HORSE will also be taking place.

Veteran poker player and pro, Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi $1.56 million by defeating over a hundred other skilled and professional poker players in the $50,000 buy-in Players Championship.

The tournament featured eight different varieties of poker:  Limit hold'em, Omaha high-low split-eight or better, razz, seven card stud, seven card stud high-low split-eight or better, no-limit hold'em, pot-limit Omaha and deuce-to-seven triple draw lowball. Mizrachi received the Chip Reese Memorial Trophy for his win.

Another new event in the WSOP will be the $25,000 six-handed no-limit hold'em tournament, a four-day event at the end of the tournament. From the 2009 World Series of Poker event, seven more $1,000 events have been added to the 2010 calendar of events in order to offer something for all levels of poker players to participate in the competition.

There is a ladies event on June 11th, the same day the World Cup begins in South Africa and a Seniors event will take place on June 18th along with an open event for seniors on July 1st and 2nd.

WSOP Tournament Director Jack Effel comments that  "We are planning for the largest WSOP ever and look forward to welcoming all players to the Rio in Las Vegas next summer."

In November of 2010 the nine winners that reach the final table on July 17th will reunite on the 6th through the 9th when play resumes until a champion is made.

A charity event on July 3rd, the fourth annual, “Ante Up For Africa” tournament will commence with $5,000 being raised for charity and will feature celebrities and poker pros.