This summer is going to get even bigger for online poker players around the world with the addition of another major series which is due to kick off this month. The World Poker Tour (WPT) World Online Championships will run on partypoker from August 13 to September 15, and will once again clash with the international portion of the WSOP Online on GGPoker.
WPT Online Series Includes $5M Main Event
The WPT and partypoker are still finalizing the full schedule and structure for the upcoming series, but based on available info, the festival will be headlined by a $5,300 Main Event, which will award $5 million in guaranteed prize money.
The Main Event will also feature three starting flights which will get underway on August 29. Players will kick off the action with 200,000 in starting chips, and will be allowed one re-entry per flight. The finale will take place on the final day of the festival on September 15.
As usual, players will be given the opportunity to win a seat into the tournament for a much cheaper price through satellites which they can enter for as low as $0.01.
The WPT World Online Championships debuted last year, offering a whopping $100 million guarantee. The festival culminated in the $10,300 Main Event, which featured $10 million in guarantees. The tournament attracted a total of 1,011 entries, ultimately topped by Phil Mighall for $1,550,298.
WPT – WSOP Online Rivalry Continues
Last year was really great for online poker operators, with the industry experiencing a mini boom due to a massive surge in online traffic which came as a result of home quarantine and lockdown measures across the globe.
In 2020, we saw some of the biggest online poker festivals in history being held, including the inaugural WPT World Online Championships and the WSOP Online Bracelet Series on GGPoker, both of which ran on similar dates, the latter awarding a total of 54 gold bracelets, and almost $150 million in total prize money.
The first-ever WSOP Online Series featured a $5,000 buy-in Main Event, with a whopping $25 million guarantee. The tournament attracted 5,802 entries to generate $27,559,500 in total prize pool, enough for it to earn a Guinness World Record for the largest prize pool for a single tournament in online poker history. Stoyan Madanzhiev was crowned as 2020 WSOP Online Main Event champion for $3,904,685, also the biggest top prize ever awarded in online poker.
WSOP Online clearly emerged as the bigger series compared to the WPT Online in 2020, and the same can also be expected this year, given the prize money on offer and the number of championship tournaments available. But it’s also worth noting that last year’s WPT Online offered more value than the WSOP Online Super Circuit.
The 2020 WPT Online had an average prize pool of $561,702, compared to the $261,046 recorded by the WSOP Online Super Circuit.
The 2021 WSOP Online Series on GGPoker takes place from August 1 to September 12, and features 33 gold bracelet events, including a $5,000 buy-in, $20M GTD Main Event.
GGPoker is hyping up the entire series by also running tons of promotions in August, awarding more than $10,000,000 worth of extra prizes. Players can get their hands on these huge prizes through daily leaderboards across a variety of games, such as All-In or Fold, Spin & Gold, Hold’em, Omaha, Short Deck, Flip & Go, and Battle Royale. This is on top of exclusive giveaways and welcome offers also running at the site throughout the month.
The 2021 WSOP Online will once again surpass its WPT counterpart, but while that’s likely the case, WPT Online players and fans can look forward to a bigger series this year, with more top quality tournaments set to be added to the schedule, as indicated in partypoker LIVE’s website.
It will surely be an exciting next few weeks for online poker players and fans across the world!