Getting ready to take their wares totally online for the first time in their history Caesars Entertainment, the World Series of Poker and GGPoker have announced the schedule for GGPoker’s segment of the 2020 “online WSOP.” The 54-event schedule is replete with Texas Hold’em style tournaments, with a smattering of Omaha tossed in, but not one non-flop game is on the schedule. The schedule also doesn’t make one feel confident that there will be ANY live WSOP action in Las Vegas this fall or winter.
GGPoker/WSOP Starts July 19
The WSOP will come to GGPoker beginning July 19 with a $2 million guaranteed event. “The Opener” will be a $100 buy in ($92 to the prize pool) tournament that features one re-entry for players who don’t hit with their first bullet. With the $2 million guaranteed prize pool and the low entry fee, it should be one of the more popular tournaments and provide for a good kickoff to the GGPoker leg of the “online WSOP.”
Running until September 6, the GGPoker/WSOP will feature some significant events on its 54-tournament roster. The $1500 Millionaire Maker is going to be held on August 2, guaranteeing a $5 million prize pool and a $1 million payout to the eventual champion. A $10,000 Heads Up Championship will be held on August 9, with a player cap of 128 players. The Poker Players’ Championship is also a part of the mix, with a reduced buy in to $25,000 (and a guaranteed prize pool of $10 million) on August 23.
The big event of the WSOP schedule is, of course, the “Main Event” (the “online WSOP” is not calling the event the Championship Event). This will be a $5000 tournament that features a $25 million guaranteed prize pool. The “Main Event” will start on August 30, but there will be other tournaments that go on (including “The Closer”) that end out the schedule on September 6.
Many Issues Facing the Schedule…and What About the “Live” WSOP?
This is an audacious task that Caesars, the WSOP and GGPoker have taken on. Previously, the WSOP has had bracelet events online – approximately 15 over the past three years or so – but never before in history have they attempted something on this scale. Although there are contingencies for what pitfalls may be waiting down the road, there are other potential problems that this schedule – and the 31-event NJ/NV WSOP.com roster of tournaments – may be facing.
In placing such huge guarantees on their leg of the event, GGPoker and the WSOP are taking a huge chance. They are gambling that players from outside the States of America – GGPoker does NOT accept U. S. action, along with several other countries – will come to the events in droves. The higher dollar buy-in events, with their sizeable guarantees, may come up terribly short and, if so, demonstrate that perhaps the “online WSOP” wasn’t a particularly good idea.
Additionally, if Caesars and the WSOP were looking to give people hope that there was going to be a live WSOP later in the fall or early winter, they certainly didn’t do it through the naming of their events. Not only was the PPC moved over to the online arena, but such popular LIVE tournaments as the “Big 50,” “The Closer,” the “Millionaire Maker” and “The Colossus” have all been migrated over to the GGPoker leg of the journey. While this doesn’t necessarily mean that they won’t be held if there is a live WSOP this year, the fact that they have been plopped in the online version of the event doesn’t give one confidence that Caesars or the WSOP are looking to have a “live WSOP” later this year.
Each of the events will award an official WSOP bracelet and GGPoker is also offering some other awards along with their schedule. For more information on the “online WSOP” schedule and their Twitch streaming operations, you can visit GGPoker here to learn more about the “online 2020 WSOP.”
