Running it back
If there was a silver lining to all the cancellations of live poker tournaments and festivals because of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was that they led to the birth of many successful online events. One of these was the WPT World Online Championships, hosted by partypoker, which returns again this year.
Scheduled for August 13 through September 15, the highlight of the series will be the WPT Main Event, which starts August 29. The $5,300 buy-in tournament comes with a $5 million guaranteed prize pool.
Though the Main Event is slated to span more than two weeks, competitors will not be playing every day. Three starting flights are available, one each Sunday: August 29, September 5, and September 12, giving busy players some flexibility. The final table on September 15 will be live streamed on partypoker and World Poker Tour channels. And keep in mind that this is an official WPT Main Event, so the winner will get their name etched onto the Mike Sexton WPT Champions Cup.
“We are excited to bring the WPT World Online Championships back after last year’s record-breaking success,” said Hermance Blum, WPT VP Europe, in a press release. “WPT and partypoker continue to excel in creating exceptional events for players of all buy-in levels and we can’t wait to see the next name placed on the Mike Sexton WPT Champions Cup.”
Last year’s WPT World Online Championships Main Event had a $10,300 and attracted 1,011 entries. Phil Mighall won the tourney and the $1.55 million first prize.
Target partypoker’s pros
Though it starts next week, the entire schedule for the Championships has yet to be announced. One event that has been verified is a fun one: the Pro Hunt. In this $33 buy-in Progressive Knockout event, players can win additional prizes for eliminating partypoker pros such as Jaime Staples, Courtney Gee, Patrick Leonard, Joao Simao, Joni Jouhkimainen and Mikita Bodyakovskiy.
Among the available prizes are a $5,300 Main Event seat and $109 Main Event satellite tickets. 20% of the prize pool will benefit charity.
Both live and online, the World Poker Tour has been very successful coming off of a year with almost no live poker because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Unfortunately, the virus is rearing its ugly head again, resulting in the postponement of the WPT bestbet Scramble in Jacksonville, Florida later this month. COVID-19 cases, and incidents of the more dangerous delta variant, in particularly, are surging in the state, causing the casino to make the decision to put off the poker festival. No makeup dates have been announced yet.