Hurrah’s Entertainment have announced the dates for the 39th annual World Series of Poker in Las Vegas next year at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino.

“The team is still hard at work on the schedule of events for next year, but we’ve received so many requests for the dates that we decided to announce them now,” said Jeffrey Pollack, WSOP Commissioner.

The tournment is scheduled to start 30 May and will culminate with the final of the main event – No Limit Texas Hold’em with a ,000 buy-in – on 17 July, 2008. But the most expensive tournament is anticpated to be once again the prestigious ,000 H.O.R.S.E event.

“We’ll actually open the WSOP tournament room the week of May 26th for two special events,” said Geno Iafrate, vice president and assistant general manager of the Rio. “This ‘soft opening’ will give players a chance to register early and avoid the lines we had last year during opening weekend – our busiest time.”

In addition to the high-profile, high-stakes tournaments it is expected that there will be over fifty other official WSOP bracelet events, as well as numerous satellite games offering players the chance to win entry into the main event.

This year saw 6,358 players do battle for an .25 million first prize in the WSOP main event, and the 2008 tournament is expected to attract even more players.