LAS VEGAS — Organizers of the World Series of Poker plan to keep a four-month break intact for their no-limit Texas Hold 'em main event starting in July, and are adding a one-time $40,000 buy-in tournament at the start of the series to commemorate its 40th anniversary.

The break, which began last year, delayed the final table of the world's richest poker tournament to allow ESPN television broadcasts to air without viewers knowing the winner. The tournament field whittled from 6,844 players to nine in July, and the remaining players didn't meet again until November, when Peter Eastgate became the event youngest winner and won $9.15 million.

Tournament and cable network officials said ratings went up 50 percent for last year's final table, which aired the same day play finished.

Dennis Phillips, a trucking account manager from Cottage Hills, Ill., who won $4.5 million for finishing third in the main event last year, said that while he thought the break was a good thing, he thought 117 days was an extremely long time.

"I was hoping they could cut it down," Phillips told The Associated Press on Sunday. "I think it would help — it just seemed like it went on forever. I was ready for the final table probably 60 days after the break."

Phil Hellmuth, an 11-time gold bracelet winner at the series, said most players think the main event's break is good for the game, allowing for more buildup to a winner and creating a bigger spectacle when the final nine players finally square off.

The World Series of Poker, starting May 27 at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, will have 57 gold bracelet events, up from 55 last year. The main event starts July 3 and a winner will be crowned Nov. 10.

The special $40,000 no-limit Hold 'em tournament is the first series tournament to be held after a $500 tournament for casino employees only.

Hellmuth said Sunday that the high price tag of the event — only a $50,000 rotating-game H.O.R.S.E. tournament costs more to enter — could make players feel like it rivals the main event in terms of prestige.

"Given my druthers, I'd like to see that be a $25,000 buy in, but for the 40th anniversary, 40 seems OK," Hellmuth said.

Last year, the main event and H.O.R.S.E. events were considered the most coveted tournaments. Higher buy-in prices mean fewer players will be able to enter, making it more likely that recognizable pros like Hellmuth and others will make up the final table. Poker professional Scotty Nguyen, who won the main event in 1998, took home nearly $2 million for winning the H.O.R.S.E. tournament last year.

The series is also offering what it calls a "stimulus special," a $1,000 buy-in event during the first weekend that it hopes will attract a record crowd for a non-main event tournament.

Gone from the series are five re-buy events, in which players were allowed to buy themselves back into the tournament after they got knocked out.

"I think that's a mistake," Hellmuth said.

Hellmuth said he likes re-buy tournaments not because he likes to spend money to stay in a tournament, but because opponents assume they will have to and therefore don't play as well as they should.

He said that players like himself and Johnny Chan, a two-time world champion in 1987 and 1988, need only one buy-in to do well in re-buy tournaments.

"I don't think you can buy a bracelet," he said.

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