The hits to the poker calendar continue as the world goes on semi-lockdown in an attempt to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). As poker players know, a poker room has got to be one of the worst places to be if trying to avoid a virus. And casinos know this, too. To that end, the World Series of Poker has postponed or suspended a number of WSOP Circuit stops this spring, but added some online tournaments to make up for it.
WSOP U.S. Circuit
Stateside, the WSOP Circuit stops that were running over the weekend were halted. These stops include Harrah’s Atlantic City, Bicycle Hotel & Casino and Hard Rock Tulsa. When the original announcement was made on Friday, WSOP Circuit Hard Rock Tulsa was still on as scheduled, but the casino suspended it later in the weekend.
The governor of New Jersey ordered all casinos to close on Monday, so the Harrah’s Atlantic City stop might not have been able to finish, anyway, depending on how long the poker proceedings went. The Bike, along with three other Los Angeles casinos, also closed over the weekend, so that stop was doomed.
The hope for all three tour stops is that they will eventually pick up where they left off.
Other WSOP Circuit stops that had yet to begin have been postponed. Like the suspended events, the idea is to reschedule them when the COVID-19 threat dies down. Nobody knows when that will be.
Cut off at the pass are Bally’s Las Vegas (originally scheduled for March 19th through March 30th), Horseshoe Council Bluffs (March 26th through April 6th), and Harrah’s Cherokee (April 8th through April 20th).
WSOP International Circuit
In Europe, two WSOP International Circuit stops have been nixed. The one at King’s Resort in Rozvadov, Czech Republic, the home of the World Series of Poker Europe, has been suspended. It started on March 5th and was supposed to run through March 23rd.
WSOP Circuit at Casino Barriere Le Croisette in Cannes, France is pushed back indefinitely from its planned run of April 9th through April 19th.
In the meantime….
To try to relieve some of that disappointment in players who wanted to participate in the WSOP Circuit stops at Harrah’s Atlantic City and Bally’s Las Vegas, The World Series of Poker quickly threw together the WSOP.com Online Super Circuit Series.
Running March 14th though March 31st, the Super Circuit Series is open to those in Nevada, Delaware, and New Jersey on WSOP.com/888poker. There will be 18 events, all of which are official WSOP Circuit ring events. As such, they award points toward the Circuit leaderboards. The Casino Champion, who is the person to earn the most points during the WSOP.com Online Super Circuit Series, and the person who wins the Main Event will earn free seats in the season-ending Global Casino Championship.
There is $1 million in guaranteed prize pools across all 18 events. It looks like that total will be smashed, though. The first two events had $50,000 guarantees each. They attracted enough entries, however, to generate about $360,000 in prize money.