COVID-19 Sends The 2020 World Series Of Poker Online

For the first time since its inception, the World Series of Poker will not take place in Las Vegas. Well, not entirely, as this time around, the most prestigious tournament series in poker will be held exclusively at online poker sites.

While not officially canceled, the newly announced 85-event online poker series (the complete schedule can be found here) seems to dampen any hopes of a live WSOP sometime in 2020.

“With the flagship World Series of Poker (WSOP) postponed in Las Vegas due to the public health emergency involving COVID-19, today organizers announced “World Series of Poker Online,” an online poker festival spanning two months,” the press release announcing the tournament series says. “Set to be one of the largest online tournament series of all time, “WSOP Online” will offer players massive prize pools, unprecedented media coverage for online events, and the chance to win gold bracelet glory across two distinct gaming platforms, WSOP.com and GGPoker.”

Two WSOPs in 2020

There will actually be two online WSOPs in 2020. The first will feature a daily event available to WSOP.com players in Nevada and New Jersey. The second is a more extensive, international series (not available to US players) that will take place on GGPoker, thanks to an expanded partnership with the WSOP.   

“It wouldn’t be Summer without WSOP” said Ty Stewart, Executive Director of the World Series of Poker. “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.”

 The Nevada-New Jersey WSOP 

The North American WSOP begins on July 1, with a single WSOP bracelet event held each day, for a total of 31 events.  But as noted above, the series is only open to registered WSOP.com players in Nevada and New Jersey. 

You can expect a rush of US-based professional poker players heading to both states to partake in the series. However, unlike a typical WSOP series, it’s doubtful the online series will attract many international players for the following reasons:

1. Travel restrictions stemming from COVID-19
2. The prize-pools won’t be large enough to offset travel costs.
3. There are nearly two weeks of overlap between the NJ-NV series and the international series on GGPoker.

Nor will it attract the usual swarm of casual players.

And yet another issue the series has is a lack of tournament diversity, as the WSOP.com platform only offers No Limit Holdem and PLO tournaments.

The International WSOP

The international series on GGPoker kicks off on Sunday, July 19. Like the WSOP.com series, there will be an event a day, but the international series will run through September 6, for a total of 54 tournaments.

Additionally, the schedule is likely to be far more diverse, with numerous poker variants offered.

According to the press release:

GGPoker plans to unveil its bracelet schedule on a rolling basis and will have a broad range of buy-ins and game formats.  GGPoker boasts next-generation smart software and a multitude of innovative features, which will be on display during the online series. 

The GGPoker series should dwarf the NJ-NV version. GGPoker held a WSOPC Super Series in May, where the site awarded over $134 million in prize money.

“With over $100M in guarantees during the WSOPC Super Series in May and more than $134M in awarded prizes, it’s clear that GGPoker and the WSOP make a good pair,” said Steve Preiss, Head of Poker Operations for GGPoker. “We’re excited to create bracelet events that the worldwide poker community will embrace, as well as innovative programming with PokerGo.”

The Main Event of the WSOPC series saw 10,000 entries and awarded $1.2 million to the winner. With a WSOP gold bracelet sweetening the pot, GGPoker will likely shatter those numbers.

Unfortunately, US players may find it difficult to travel outside the US due to the Coronavirus pandemic.