Nearly two weeks after the World Series of Poker announced plans for the 2021 WSOP Online events on WSOP.com, more details have been released about what international players have to look forward to including a pair of WSOP Super Circuit series and 66 total WSOP bracelets across two online poker platforms.
The 33 WSOP Online bracelet events held on WSOP.com between July 1 and August 1 will be mirrored by an additional 33 bracelet events on GGPoker beginning on August 1 and running through September 12. In 2020, in the midst of the global COVID-19 pandemic, WSOP officials held 31 events on WSOP.com for players in the United States and another 54 on GGPoker for international players.
“The bar has been set with last year’s record-breaking series, but we’re hoping to raise it even higher this year,” said Gregory Chochon, Director of the WSOP. “One of our goals is to provide as many people the chance to become champions as possible. However, we know not everyone can or is comfortable traveling yet, so continuing a robust online bracelet offering in 2021 is a must.”
The 2020 WSOP Online Main Event on GGPoker had a $5,000 buy-in and a $20,000,000 guarantee which was easily surpassed after 5,802 pushed the total prize pool to $27,559,500, which earned GGPoker and the WSOP a Guinness World Record for the largest online poker tournament prize pool ever. While no details regarding the 2021 WSOP Online Main Event have been released yet, company officials are hinting at going even bigger in their second year.
“When GGPoker & WSOP partnered in 2020, we broke world records. Our plans for 2021 are to offer even more to our customers. With massive tournaments, WSOP gold bracelet & rings, and a route into the live WSOP Main Event in November, we hope players will love what we have in store,” said GGPoker Head of Poker Operations Steve Preiss.
While players will be waiting for the bracelet events, the WSOP action on GGPoker actually begins on May 1, with the WSOP Super Circuit Online Series. Running for the entire month of May, the series comes with a $100,000,000 guarantee and 18 WSOP Circuit rings will be up for grabs. Along with those 18 Circuit rings which will be won via standard multi-table tournaments, for the first time ever, cash game grinders will have an opportunity to win a piece of WSOP hardware.
Two leaderboards, one for No Limit Hold’em and a second for Pot-Limit Omaha/Pot Limit Omaha-5, will run for the duration of the Super Circuit. The top nine players on each leaderboard will be invited to play a single-table tournament with cash prizes for all nine and a WSOP Circuit ring for the winner.
The second WSOP Super Circuit series on GGPoker will be the WSOP Winter Online Super Circuit at GGPoker with dates still to be determined.
Along with the 66 total bracelet events, players on both platforms will be able to play in WSOP Main Event satellites beginning on August 1. These satellites will award seats to the $10,000 WSOP Main Event scheduled to begin on November 4 in Las Vegas. These satellites will run straight through until October 1.
WSOP officials plan to provide more details, including tournament dates and buy-ins, for the live and online schedule, over the coming weeks.