The COVID-19 pandemic continues to put the future of live poker events in limbo, with a second wave of lockdowns now beginning to take effect in certain countries, and the number of positive cases continuing to rise worldwide, including the United States.
With this in mind, the World Series of Poker (WSOP) has decided to hold its Circuit events at the virtual felts throughout 2021. This means players from New Jersey and Nevada will compete for the highly-coveted WSOP Gold Rings on WSOP.com from January to December.
Key Details
In a recent press release, the WSOP announced that the upcoming season will award more than 180 Gold Rings, which will be distributed across 13 online events (the 13th event is still awaiting a final schedule as it will be held in a newly regulated market, according to the presser).
WSOP Executive Director Ty Stewart said the 2021 WSOP Online Circuit Series will be all about giving players the great tournaments and great value that they deserve. Building on the massive success of their online events in 2020, the WSOP is upping the ante this year by giving away loads of extra prizes on top of the Gold Rings and tournament payouts.
While the whole season will now go online, the WSOP has decided to keep most of the live elements, such as the Championship model. As usual, the season will end in a championship tournament. Last year, the season-ending Global Casino Championship was also held online, and it was won by AJ “RandyLerch” Kelsall for $275,632.
Full Schedule of the 2021 Circuit Season
Players will have their first chance of winning a WSOP Gold Ring in the Winter Online Super Circuit which will run from January 14-31. It will be followed by Planet Hollywood Circuit on February 17-28, Silver Legacy Circuit on March 19-20, and Spring Online Super Circuit on April 10-27.
Caesars Atlantic City Super Circuit takes place on May 8-25, followed by Summer Online Super Circuit (June 10-27), Bally’s Online Circuit (July 16-27), Rio Online Circuit (August 20-31), Caesars Las Vegas Online Circuit (September 15-26), Fall Online Super Circuit (October 9-26), Paris Las Vegas Online Circuit (November 10-21), and Harrah’s Las Vegas Online Circuit (December 8-19).
As we can observe, some of the scheduled events were co-branded with the WSOP’s partner venues (e.g., Caesars Atlantic City Online Circuit, Rio Online Circuit).
Additionally, the WSOP has also introduced promotional room rates for out of town guests staying in those properties to participate in the tournaments, with cash-at-the-cage buy-in and cash out options also being made available. All of these are aimed at attracting out-of-market players to take part in the online series.
As for the potential 13th event, the WSOP has yet to provide any further details other than saying that it is “earmarked pending launch of the WSOP.com” in a newly regulated market. As we all know, Michigan and Pennsylvania are the latest states to legalize online poker. We will wait for more updates on this.
More Prizes Up for Grabs
The Online Circuit Series will feature monthly leaderboards, which will give points to players finishing in the money in any ring event. Tournament tickets worth a total of $10,000 will be awarded to the top 10 players, who will also gain automatic entry into a freeroll tournament which takes place just a few days after the conclusion of each series. They, alongside the ring winners of the series will compete for $25,000 in extra prizes!
Those who have played at least four tournaments in any of the scheduled series will also be awarded with a ticket to the “Second Chance” freeroll which also takes place on a monthly basis.
The season-ending WSOP Online Circuit Championship will feature $250,000 in total prize pool, and it will be participated in by all players who won a ring throughout the 2021 season, winners of Second Chance Fast Forward tournaments, winners of the $10K Player of the Month leaderboard, as well as the top 50 players on the overall leaderboard who are not otherwise eligible.
You may check out the full details and schedule of the upcoming season on WSOP.com.