A midweek start for the World Series of Poker circuit event at Harrah’s Resort seems to have tripped up the numbers some as the field for the opening tournament Thursday comes in at just 704.

That’s a nice field to be sure (prize pool $204,864), but almost 550 off last year’s opening tournament field, which started on a Saturday with 1,250 entries

The event is a $300 + $45 No Limit game which continues today. That’s about all we know about first day action so far, but WSOP.com is promising live streaming coverage of the final tables of all ring events. Today’s stream is scheduled to start at 4pm.

Today’s second “ring” event (in which WSOP circuit rings are awarded to the winners), is another $300 + $45 event that could have a much better shot at challenging that 1,250 number.

The event is a three-day tournament with two day ones Friday and Saturday (what The Borgata calls a Double Play). Those who bust out Friday can re-enter Saturday.

There’s also a championship event satellite ($165 + $25) event at 5pm today and a $175 + $25 event at 7pm tonight.

You can get the full schedule here.

Duke

We saved a little of our interview with Annie Duke for today just to celebrate her appearance tonight (May 21) and tomorrow in the Harrah’s poker room.

Duke, as we noted in the interview, spends a lot of time teaching poker and we asked her what are the most important points she tries to get across to players. The answer: position is everything and bluffing, well, just don’t fall in love with it.

“I think a lot of players don’t really value position properly,” says Duke.  “And particularly nowadays you see a lot of people play a lot of goofy hands right up front. I try to drive home just how big a disadvantage it is to be out of position on a poker hand.”

But Duke was much more pointed about players who over rely on bluffing.

“I talk about what bluffing is and when it’s appropriate,” she says. “Because I think right now bluffing is overused and generally badly executed. And that’s a really disastrous combination. If you do it too often and not well, that’s pretty bad.

“One of the things that people don’t realize is that the hands you choose to play are intricately linked to bluffing,” Duke continued. “Because when you choose to play a hand, you’re actually at that moment setting your bluffing frequency. Meaning that clearly the worse the hand, the more likely you’ll have to bluff to win.

“So if you choose to play a hand like seven, six of hearts, chances are on the flop, if you want to win that pot, you’re going to have to bluff most of the time. Where if you play pocket aces, you never have to bluff. So you have a lot of control over your bluffing frequency.

“You should only play bad hands in situations where you can bluff effectively,” she says. “Because that’s probably what you’re going to end up doing. But what people think about with those hands is making the straights and flushes, but you should actually be thinking about making nothing, because that’s what’s most likely to happen.”

Duke appears tonight in the Harrah’s room at 6pm with a Q&A session with the public scheduled for 8 pm. Saturday, Duke will be playing in the poker room at 11am. Her appearances are to promote the WSOP super satellite event at the casino going on through May 27.

Here’s a look at one of the trophies to be handed out to the winners of the 16 tournaments in the Harrah’s Resort World Series of Poker satellite meet (in this case event 13). The satellite event begins Wednesday, but is not an official “circuit” event of the World Series, such as the WSOP circuit event at Caesars earlier this year. At circuit events, winners get WSOP rings as sort of a bracelet tease. Still, since Harrah’s Entertainment owns the WSOP, the trophies are pretty official, especially since you get the money from winning a tournament as well. Players can also win $10,000 seats at the WSOP Main Event in July at The Rio in event 11 and event 16, which we have to admit is probably cooler than the trophy. Go to our previous post for the schedule.

Organizer’s of the World Series of Poker say early registrations for the WSOP Main Event, which starts July 5 at the Rio in Las Vegas, are coming in at a record pace. After a couple of years of decline in the field, the WSOP is gearing up for a big showing and has even increased the size of the Rio’s playing area by about 20 percent. This year there will be 377 tables and opening day play will be split over four days.

And you could be there, even without coming up with the $10,000 buy-in, thanks to the WSOP satellite event starting at Harrah’s Resort May 12, probably the last major satellite event available before the WSOP starts May 28.

The 16-event meet includes two chances to win seats at the WSOP Main Event. The winner of Event 11, a $1,000 + $150 Deep Stack No Limit tournament that starts May 22 wins a seat. But the real action starts May 27 when Event 16, a $1035 + $65 No Limit event begins. One $10,000 seat at the WSOP Main Event will be awarded for every 10 players in the tournament. A field of 100 means 10 seats.

Satellites for both events, as well as Event 4, a $1,000 + $100 Deep Stack, will be held for a few days prior to each event. Satellites for Event 16 are $115 + $25. So for just a $140 investment, you could be the next Chris Moneymaker.

Here’s a look at the satellite event schedule (after the jump): (more…)

Annie Duke

Not totally sure how this will work out exactly, buy players in the May 22, $2,150 Deep Stack Event — part of the World Series of Poker satellite event at Harrah’s Resort from May 12-27 — could find themselves playing next to top pro Annie Duke.

Duke is scheduled to appear at the casino May 21 and 22 and a little of her itinerary has come down to us. But as you’ll see, it isn’t completely nailed down yet.

On the 21^st, Duke will make an appearance at 6pm in the Harrah’s poker room and make a few remarks. She’ll then hold a question and answer session at 8pm somewhere at Harrah’s, we just don’t know where.

After that, she’ll attend a VIP Meet and Greet, which is invitation only, and again, we don’t know where it will be (so if you’re looking to crash, sorry).

Saturday the 22^nd, she’s scheduled to play (not sure when) in the poker room. That big deep stack event starts at 11am — by the way, the winner gets a seat at The WSOP Main Event at The Rio in Las Vegas — and a $140 satellite for the May 27 main WSOP satellite event ($1035 + $65) starts at 7pm. Then again a special game could also be staged for Duke.

Duke’s appearance at the casino is being heavily promoted and the Harrah’s satellite event is on of the last WSOP satellites being played before the World Series itself starts May 28 in Vegas.

We’ll keep you posted as we learn more.

Stephanopoulos and Jason Lee

George Stephanopoulos poker play at Harrah’s Atlantic City aired today on Good Morning America. But while Stephanopoulos may have been the one fulfilling his dream, it was Phil Helmuth who gets the trophy. The game was played last week at Harrah’s Resort. Go here for our story and the GMA clip.

Annie Duke

Annie Duke says she thinks she was chosen to teach Good Morning America anchor George Stephanopoulos poker on the morning show to appeal to GMA’s female demographic and that her main lessons to the anchorman was that position is everything in poker and don’t fall in love with bluffing.

Duke spoke to Poker News Daily about the appearance on GMA, which was filmed Thursday at Harrah’s Atlantic City. The segment was part of GMA’s “Living the Dream” event, where each of the show’s anchors fufills a lifelong dream. Stephanopoulos chose playing big time poker. After receiving about a half hour of instructions from Duke, he squared off in a special game with her, Phil Helmuth, Steve Beigletter and Jason “Jaspuduf” Lee.

The segment is scheduled to air Wednesday, May 5. Meanwhile, you can see a few seconds of Lee trying to bully Stephanopoulos out of a hand, but not succeeding, by going here.

Here’s some quotes from Duke about the segment (after the jump):

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Stephanopoulos

How’s this for a dream table? George Stephanopoulos, Annie Duke, Phil Helmuth, Steven Beigletter and Jason Lee all banging heads in a Hold’em showdown. Ok, that’s a pretty strange mix, but it happened Thursday at Harrah’s Atlantic City. It’s part of Good Morning America’s “Live the Dream” segment, which sends its anchors out to live their wildest dreams. Stephanopoulos apparently has always wanted to get yelled at by Helmuth. Go here for our story.

Annie Duke

Poker fave Annie Duke is going to become an A.C. regular this year as Harrah’s Resort has announced a series of appearances by Duke in connection with Harrah’s World Series of Poker. Duke will appearing at WSOP satellite events at the Atlantic City casino, including May 21-22 during the casino’s WSOP satellite meet which runs May 12 through 27.

She’ll also be at Harrah’s in September and December, according to the casino, but Harrah’s hasn’t released specific dates yet.

As for her May appearance, Harrah’s says Duke will meet-and-greet fans and players, though again, where and when were not released.

This is on top of Duke teaching poker at The WSOP Academy at Harrah’s May 1-3, though no public appearances during that event have been announced.

OK, clearly we need to track down more specifics, but Harrah’s and Duke do seem to be best buds for the moment (which makes it very unlikely she’ll play in the Borgata Spring Open as we hoped earlier).

“Our poker players will be treated to several property appearances by Annie in 2010,” says Jay Snowden, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Harrah’s, “including multiple sessions where she’ll provide expert advice and an exclusive look at the game of poker as seen by a pro on the WSOP Circuit.”

The casino is promising updates on the appearances by following Duke on Twitter @RealAnnieDuke as well as insider poker tips and promotions leading up to and during her visit to Atlantic City.

The WSOP Satellite Event May 12-27  will feature 16 events with buy-ins ranging from $230 up to the May 22 $2150 Deep Stack main event. The winner of the May 27 final event, an $1,100 buy-in, gets a $10,000 seat at the WSOP main event in July at The Rio in Las Vegas. Registration is already underway for the satellite event at the casino. Call 609-441-5741 or go here for info.

Annie Duke

Annie Duke will be in teacher mode as she makes her first appearance with the World Series of Poker Tournament Academy at Harrah’s Resort in Atlantic City May 1-2. Duke will be the lead instructor for the program. She will also teach at the WSOP Live Hand Analysis Academy May 3.

The two-day academy costs $1,899 and is designed for players at all levels. However, to celebrate Duke’s appearance, you can get a $300 discount if you live within 150 miles of A.C. Only 45 seats are open, so you’d better move fast if you’re interested (Hell, they could already be gone). Go here to sign up.

The $999 Hand Analysis Academy will also be taught by Duke, but is even more limited with only 20 seats and is open only to alumnae of the Tournament Academy.

Duke, of course, is one of the top pro players in the world with more than $3 million in tournament cashes. And through appearances on things such as Celebrity Apprentice, has carved out a nice little celebrity niche. She also has a new poker instructional app she’s offering for free.

Other instructors for the Academy include Shawn Rice, Bernard Lee, Court Harrington and “tells expert” Joe Navarro.

Here’s some description from the WSOP folks.

“During the upcoming two-day Tournament Academy, instructors will lead participants through two days of intensive seminars with questions and answers, video analysis of WSOP tournament footage, live hand demonstrations and a private multi-table tournament. Designed for players of all levels of experience, the event’s curriculum will focus on all aspects of No-Limit Texas Hold’em tournament strategy, including playing position, calculating pot odds, post-flop strategy, concealing tells, identifying types of players, the importance of aggression and changing gears.”

You can also call 800-989-9767 for information.