In late April, we found out that the international portion of the 2021 WSOP Online was going to start on August 1, but the schedule had yet to be determined. Nothing like waiting until the last minute. On Tuesday, GGPoker announced the 33-bracelet schedule for its portion of the WSOP Online, slated for August 1 through September 12.
Unlike the currently-running WSOP Online on WSOP.com, this one is off-limits to players in the United States, as GGPoker does not accept US customers. But that’s part of the plan, as only players in New Jersey and Nevada were able to compete for bracelets on WSOP.com.
We won’t go through the entire schedule here, but one of the highlights comes right off the bat on the first day. “The Return NLH” only costs $50 to enter, but brings with it a $1 million guaranteed prize pool. And, of course, a gold bracelet for the winner. That same day is the $1,111 Caesars Cares Charity Event, where the entire $111 entry fee will go toward Nevada’s COVID-19 relief fund.
Just like we have seen in the live World Series of Poker, the $1,500 Millionaire Maker event on August 8 guarantees $1 million for the winner. Daniel Dvoress won last year’s Milly and nearly $1.5 million.
Of the 13 tournaments with guaranteed prize pools, the largest is, not surprisingly, the $5,000 Main Event starting on August 29, which has a $20 million guarantee.
Last year’s GGPoker Main Event drew 5,802 entries and generated a $27,559,500 prize pool. Guinness World Records recognized the tournament as the “Largest Prize Pool for an Online Poker Tournament.” Before that, the record belonged to partypoker at its $5,300 buy-in MILLIONS Online in 2018, which had a $21,835,000 prize pool.
Stoyan Madanzhiev won the Main Event and its $3.9 million first prize.
Two events will be broadcast on GGPoker.tv (which redirects to YouTube): the Heads-Up No-Limit Hold’em Championship and the Main Event. The former will begin with a Day 1 recap and finals preview on August 26 at 5:00pm GMT. Two days later will be the semi-finals and finals coverage starting at the same time.
The Main Event’s Day 1 recap and finals preview will be on September 9 at 5:00pm GMT. The final table will stream at 5:00pm on September 11.
Perhaps the coolest part about the streaming coverage is that the commentators will be none other than WSOP behind-the-mic legends Norman Chad and Lon McEachern. This will be Chad’s first WSOP broadcast since 2019, as he sat out the 2020 Main Event (the heads-up battle was actually contested at the very beginning of 2021) because he was still recovering from COVID-19, which he contracted back in August. It will be great to have him back and presumably, he will be announcing the live WSOP at the Rio in the fall.