In March, the few U.S. poker players who are able to play online got their shot at the WSOP.com Online Super Circuit Series. Now it’s the rest of the world’s turn. The World Series of Poker has announced the WSOP Super Circuit Online Series will be hosted by global-facing GGPoker in May.
We don’t know when in May – that minor detail has not been revealed just yet. What we do know is that it will last about three weeks and will be made up of “hundreds” of tournaments. Hundreds is a lot of tournaments, if you ask me.
Eighteen of those tournaments will be official World Series of Poker Circuit gold ring events. And, just as is the case in brick-and-mortar tour stops (remember casinos?), both the Casino Champion and Main Event winner will receive free entries into the Circuit season-ending Global Casino Championship. The Casino Champion is the player who earns the most points across all 18 ring events. Points are earned based on where one finishes in the tournaments.
In Thursday’s press release, Jean-Christophe Antoine, Head of GGPoker, said, “A GGPoker and WSOP partnership brings together two like-minded global organizations, and I can’t wait to see GGPoker players competing for WSOP Circuit rings online!”
“We’re thrilled to partner with an operator on the rise who is both aggressive and passionate about growing poker engagement around the world,” added World Series of Poker Executive Director Ty Stewart. “It was unfortunate that we were forced to cancel so many offline WSOP Circuit events this Spring, but with vast reach GGPoker plans to dwarf the prize pools of the suspended events all at once in one truly Super WSOP Circuit.”
Last month’s WSOP.com Online Super Circuit Series arose from the cancellation of land-based circuit events in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was only 18 ring events, not the hundreds that the international version is promising, but it also only included players from Nevada, New Jersey, and Delaware, so that makes sense.
The series was extremely popular, likely helped by the fact that everyone is holed up in their homes, so online poker is an easy form of entertainment. $1.24 million in prize pools were guaranteed, but it could have been three times that and the WSOP still would not have had to dip into its pockets. Total prize pools ended up being $3.95 million.
And now it is on to the global stage for the WSOP Super Circuit Online Series. American players will be left out this time, as the poker rooms on the GGPoker Network do not accept U.S. players. WSOP.com doesn’t operate outside of the United States, so that wasn’t an option, anyway.
“I give credit to the WSOP for bringing the circuit online during these trying times,” said GGPoker ambassador Daniel Negreanu. “Winning a circuit ring is a great honor. Online players will love the experience of chasing rings at GGPoker.”