- Most players who finish in the money in 2007 World Series of Poker events will receive a higher percentage of the prize pools than last year, WSOP officials said earlier this month.

"We are increasing the return to players who, after hours or days of grueling competition, are able to reach the money," said Howard Greenbaum, regional vice president of specialty gaming for Harrah's Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE: HET). "Our goal is to keep more money circulating among more people in the poker community."

While the final payout schedule for each event depends on the final number of entrants, a comparison of the actual payouts for the 2006 Main Event with what they would have been under the new payout schedule illustrates the differences. Overall, 846 players last year would have won substantially more money - in some case, more than double - what they collected in 2006. The top 27 players would have received less, however.

For example, the 2006 Main Event would have paid $22,266 for 873rd through 775th places, up from $14,605 or $15,512. Places 82 through 73 would have paid $126,173, up from $66,010. First place would have paid $10,028,715, down from $12 million, while second place would have been worth $5,442,769, compared with $6,105,900.

"We discussed this concept with our poker operations team and with members of the WSOP Players Advisory Council and the consensus was that spreading the wealth is the right thing to do," said Greenbaum. "The new schedules are designed to increase the rewards to players who finish in the money but don't reach the final table."

The new payout schedules are posted at www.worldseriesofpoker.com and indicate the percentage payouts for different numbers of players for different games.

The 2007 World Series of Poker Presented by Milwaukee's Best Light will begin June 1 at the Rio® All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. More information on the tournament is available at www.worldseriesofpoker.com