The international segment of the 2021 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Online Bracelet Series is currently underway on GGPoker. The action started on August 1, immediately after the conclusion of the domestic portion which took place on WSOP.com.
Great Initial Results
Things are looking great so far on GGPoker, with the initial events attracting massive turnouts. While it remains to be seen whether this year’s festival can match the record-breaking results of the inaugural series in 2020, the 2021 WSOP Online Bracelet Series is still on course to become one of the biggest tournament series in online poker history.
Let’s take a look at the official figures for the first two events at the ongoing festival.
First Two Events Generate $3M in Prize Pool
The series opened with “The Return”, a $50 buy-in tournament promising $1 million in guaranteed prize pool. The event was a massive success, attracting 30,810 in total entries. This figure is bigger than the 29,306 recorded by 2020’s The Opener.
The huge field generated $1,417,260 in total prize money, surpassing the tournament’s guarantee by over 40%. When the dust settled, it was Polish pro Bartlomej “chester20o” Swieboda who took home the top prize of $161,111 and the first bracelet of the 2021 WSOP Online international series.
The second event on the schedule, the Caesars Cares Charity Event, featured a buy-in of $1,111, similar to the entry fee of last year’s “Every1 for Covid Relief” charity tournament. The latest charity event attracted 1,584 entries to generate over $1,759,824 in total prize pool, $175,824 of that will go directly to Caesars Cares, a COVID-19 charity based in Nevada.
Joao Simao from Brazil emerged victorious in the tournament, walking away with the top prize of $206,075, and his maiden WSOP gold bracelet. Simao is a prominent figure in the online poker world. He was once considered the best online player, accumulating over $1.1 million in online earnings on GGPoker alone.
All in all, the first two events of the international leg of the WSOP Online Series pulled in more than 32,000 entries, generating a massive prize pool of over $3 million.
No Server Failure on Opening Day
The festival indeed got off to a great start, with the initial tournaments also running without any system glitches. The opposite happened in 2020 when the opening day was hit by what GGPoker had described as a “critical bug”, which forced the operator to postpone the first two tournaments for one week. According to GGPoker, the glitch was mainly due to the overwhelming turnout on the opening day.
While the site experienced some technical issues before the start of the series on August 1, affecting multiple ongoing tournaments, they appear to have been resolved already, and so the opening day went by smoothly.
Next Up: Flip & Go NLH & MILLIONAIRE MAKER on Aug. 8
The next tournaments to watch out for are scheduled for this Sunday, August 2 – Event #6: Flip & Go No Limit Hold’em, and Event #7: Millionaire Maker.
Flip & Go is one of GGPoker’s newest game offerings. It was launched back in January of this year and has already become a hit among players because of its unique format. A bracelet version of the game has been included in this year’s WSOP Online Series, with some tweaks to the original format. The tournament features a buy-in of $200 and a huge guarantee of $1,000,000.
MILLIONAIRE MAKER also returns this year and will also take place on August 8. The $1,500 buy-in tournament comes with a $5 million guarantee, at least $1 million of that will go to the ultimate winner. Canadian poker pro Daniel Dvoress won the tournament in 2020 for more than $1.4 million.
Of course, players shouldn’t miss the $5,000 Main Event, which is the main highlight of the series. The tournament carries a massive guarantee of $20 million. Starting flights will begin on August 22, and the finale will take place on September 5.