The World Series of Poker 2021 Online schedule has been announced, with organizers revealing events will run throughout July.
The competition will start on July 1 and run through August 1, with a total of 33 bracelets awarded on the virtual felt this year. According to Staradvertiser.com, the event precedes the physical WSOP, which is due to start in September, with the main event scheduled for November 4-17.
There will be a significant buzz around the online tournament this year, and one reason is that those participating in satellite tournaments can quality for the later tournament.
Ty Stewart, WSOP Executive Director: Poker deserves a big finish to 2021, and we’re looking to heat things up this summer. We expect to offer great value tournaments as well as comprehensive satellites to qualify for Las Vegas in the Fall.
More than $174,000,000 was awarded in prize money for the inaugural WSOP Online tournament in domestic and international segments. The international element of this year’s event is yet to be confirmed (an announcement is expected over the coming weeks), but we do know that it will take place on the GGPoker platform.
The opening week of the domestic online tournament, running July 1-7, is labeled Premiere Week and includes several themed tournaments. The next section, Micro Madness, features only three tournaments with buy-ins lower than $500 and runs for three days, July 9-11.
WSOP.com
After that, it is PLO Week, July 12-24. The highlight of that section is three of the four Non-No-Limit Hold’em events on the schedule, including the No-Limit, Hold’em High Roller, with a $3,200 buy-in. July 25 is a special Double Bracelet Day, with the $7,777 buy-in high roller event and Big500 Encore, which is the only bracelet event scheduled for the same date throughout the event.
That leads into Championship Week, the series climax, with several championship events, including the Grand Finale with a guaranteed $1,000,000 prize pot and a spot at the prestigious autumn tournament to look forward to. The prize pot, and the chance to be at the WSOP, conjures up images of Chris Moneymaker back in 2003, who qualified for the WSOP from home and took home the top prize. Can someone repeat that feat this year?
Physical poker tournaments were badly affected by the pandemic last year–as many sports were–so the return of players to the Rio All-Suites Hotel and Casino for the WSOP will be a big relief to fans of the game. An article by Poker.org on U.S. poker tournaments reports that it will have a $5,000,000 guaranteed tournament over the opening weekend, along with a $25,000 HORSE event and a $10,000 main event.
It will be the 51st annual WSOP event, and organizers are hoping to entice more than 9,000 players to the tables, beating the previous best of 8,773 from 2006, which was at the height of the poker boom.
And WSOP Online is not the only way to qualify for a spot. Last year, two U.S. states–New Jersey and Nevada–offered $215 entry satellite tournaments with one spot each up for grabs at the showcase event in the Fall. That tournament was canceled due to the pandemic, but poker fans will not be let down this year!
So keep an eye out in early July for the WSOP Online. It’s a sporting event not to be missed!
