WSOP experience moves online
WSOP organizers have announced the creation of the multi-platform “World Series of Poker Online” to begin July 1. The new tournament series effectively replaces the 2020 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, which was postponed last month.
Both WSOP.com in the United States and GGPoker internationally will host “WSOP Online” events. Poker players will claim a total of 85 official gold bracelets, almost the same number that would have been awarded at the Rio this summer.
Though this will not be a traditional World Series of Poker, the WSOP is still partnering with Poker Central to stream original content, highlights, and WSOP episodes with the intention of airing them on television. Poker Central will also interview bracelet winners after their victories.
It wouldn’t be summer without WSOP.”
“It wouldn’t be summer without WSOP,” said Ty Stewart, Executive Director of the World Series of Poker in Monday’s announcement. “While we are thrilled to be reopening our venues and optimistic about future offline events, we couldn’t be more excited about deepening our relationship with GGPoker and watching some history unfold online this summer.”
WSOP.com in the U.S.
The United States leg of the WSOP Online begins July 1. The schedule consists of one tournament per day every day of the month, 31 in total. Each bracelet event begins at 3pm ET. Most events are some variety of No-Limit Hold’em, with a smattering of Omaha mixed in.
Buy-ins are low compare to normal WSOP tournaments, ranging from $400 to $3,200. The final event of the month is the $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em Championship.
The World Series of Poker has also added a leaderboard for which players can earn points by playing in gold bracelet events. The total prize money for the leaderboard is $100,000, though the prize breakdown has yet to be published.
GGPoker for everyone else
As the World Series of Poker is an international event, GGPoker, which accepts players from a multitude of countries outside of the United States, is hosting the other 54 gold bracelet events. Players in the U.S. are not eligible to play on the GGPoker Network.
players can expect just about one tournament per day
The GGPoker portion of the WSOP Online begins July 19 and will run through September 6, giving international players their first chance to win WSOP bracelet via internet play. The exact schedule has yet to be announced; it will be released “on a rolling basis.” Based on the time frame, it looks like players can expect just about one tournament per day, with a few days adding an extra event.
The WSOP and GGPoker are coming off a successful first endeavor, the WSOP Super Circuit Online Series. Filling the void left by the cancellation of this spring’s live WSOP Circuit stops, the series boasted 595 events and $100m in guaranteed prize pools. It fielded a total of 485,851 entries across all events and generated over $134m in prize money, easily beating the total guarantees.
