Starting on May 27th, the 2012 World Series of Poker will kick off from Las Vegas. The Rio will once again be the setting for this year’s tournament series, which encompasses 61 events, including the $10,000 Main Event, which begins on July 7th. This year, only three starting days will be held as the tournament staff looks to shorten the feature event considerably.

It’s one of a handful of major changes coming this year. Others include more tables, upped restart times, an expanded food area, and a possible change to the at-home viewing experience. PocketFives sat down with Caesars Entertainment Vice President of Corporate Communications Seth Palansky to get the dish on what’s in store in 2012.

PocketFives: Thanks for joining us, Seth. We understand there will be nearly 500 tables at this year’s WSOP.

Seth Palansky: For the very first time ever at the Rio, we will have the entire convention center for this event for its duration. It gives us the ability to lay things out in the best way possible for everyone’s best interests. The Brasilia Room is becoming a poker playing room again. It’s been four years since we utilized that room. It’ll have 92 poker tables and be the starting point for all Noon bracelet events. It’s near the main registration cage.

Those 92 tables are in addition to what we used last year, for 480 total. We’re keeping all of the other tables as well. In the Pavilion Room, it’ll be mainly cash games, satellites, and deep stacks. In addition, we’re going to expand the cage in that room. Players who are just coming to play satellites, cash games, and deep stacks can walk into the Pavilion Room, cash in, and be in the room they’ll be playing. This should help alleviate the main registration line that we use for bracelet events. What this ultimately means is that registration lines should be handled better and more efficiently.

The addition of 92 more tables means that we’ll be able to have bigger daily deep stack tournaments this year. We don’t anticipate any issues in meeting any demand for any event this year. That ultimately will mean bigger prize pools for players.

The Amazon Room will now host the 5:00pm bracelet events. We heard a fair number of complaints from players in the 5:00pm events saying that they were distracted by the cash and satellite play in the Pavilion Room. The Amazon Room will only feature bracelet events, restarts, and 5:00pm events. It basically puts people in a room where they can be away from those distractions.

PocketFives: The restart times have been pushed up an hour, correct?

Seth Palansky: Noon events will restart at 1:00pm the next day instead of 2:00pm. The 5:00pm events will restart at 2:00pm instead of 3:00pm. We have been able to shave off a little playing time for the 5:00pm events, so they should end at 2:00am, which is about 40 minutes earlier than last year, and we think we can bring players back 12 hours later. The Day 1 breaks will be 15 minutes, 30 minutes, and 15 minutes. We don’t need a dinner break. All told, they’ll play eight levels and will be done at 2:00am.

For the Noon events, if we have a field that is greater than 1,500 players, we will play 11 levels on Day 1. That takes the end of the day from 12:40am to 2:00am, but they’d still need to be back at 2:00pm the next day. We have gotten a fair amount of feedback saying people were upset about coming back the next day with a 2:00pm start time with few chips, but they weren’t in the money. By playing another level, we should be very close to the money, which will allow people to be able to have enough chips to come back the next day or be able to play in the Noon event the next day.

PocketFives: Talk about the food setup at this year’s WSOP.

Seth Palansky: We will have a dedicated indoor food area. The Miranda Room has been the Poker Kitchen and retail location in the past. Because we’re adding all of these poker tables, we feel we need to have a bigger seating area in the poker kitchen. So, we will move retail out of that location and the Miranda Room will be dedicated to food. We’re moving retail to the Rotunda.

One thing that isn’t finalized is that there will not be $10 food vouchers this year. Instead, we will be putting Total Rewards credit on players’ cards at registration. The real news here is that Caesars Entertainment will be recognizing poker players as an entity and providing them with benefits for being loyal customers. In the Total Rewards program, you will get credit for your play, hotel, dining, and entertainment. You should now be using it all over the property because you’ll be earning points. There are still some things to work out technically with this.

PocketFives: How can poker fans not in Las Vegas watch the WSOP?

Seth Palansky: We’ll have live streaming again. We are planning to have one final table with more cameras and audio to provide a better viewing experience. We probably won’t focus on Mixed Games, but our live streaming will focus on flop games. We’ll have commentary. We’re still deciding whether we should have the tournament announcer provide the betting information or have a host provide it.

PocketFives: Will the WSOP Main Event once again air live on ESPN?

Seth Palansky: It’s still being determined. I believe the decision has been made that the October Nine will be live, but I do not see the Main Event being live over the summer this year. It was too erosive to the Tuesday night package shows ratings-wise, but that doesn’t mean we can’t find something else to do. That’s not official yet.

PocketFives: You announced a number of changes to the format of the Main Event, including holding four starting days instead of three. What has the reaction been?

Seth Palansky: It’s been well received from those we’ve heard from. I can say that the #1 thing on our survey was the time commitment for the Main Event. We really looked at how we can shorten it up. We’ll go five levels every day for sure. That wasn’t always the case in the past.

We’ll get rid of the off day. We think it will increase participation, which is what we think players ultimately want. I wanted us to go to two Day 1s and one Day 2, but we couldn’t guarantee that we could fit everyone into two Day 1s. You’ll also get to the money much quicker now in the Main Event.

Visit WSOP.comfor more details on the 2012 tournament series. Also, be sure to check out the 2012 WSOP schedule.