The World Series of Poker (WSOP) Global Casino Championship will no longer take place at Harrah’s Cherokee this August. Instead, the event will be held online at WSOP.com on September 13. It is the latest live event to be impacted by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
The WSOP broke the news last week, indicating that the live event could not push through due to strict social distancing restrictions. With multiple WSOP Circuit events cancelled this year, organizers have also decided to put together a special WSOP Circuit Season Finale on June 3-14.
Circuit Finale – June 3-14
The Circuit online finale, which will award 12 gold rings, will also take place on WSOP.com. The 12 gold ring winners, and the player ultimately crowned as the WSOP Online Casino Champion, will each earn automatic seats to the GCC.
The online event features buy-ins from as low as $215, but if you’re into high-stakes action, you can take part in the $1000 buy-in Online Finale Circuit High Roller 6-Max, the highest buy-in event on the schedule. The 12-day online finale culminates in the $525 Main Event which comes with a $300,000 guarantee.
You may check out the full schedule on WSOP.com.
143 Automatic Entries to GCC
Throughout the latest WSOPC season, a number of players have already qualified for the GCC either by winning a designated WSOP Circuit Main Event, or by being the Casino Champion (the player with the best performance across all ring events at any given stop).
Those among the top 50 cumulative point earners in all domestic WSOP Circuit events also earned automatic entries into the GCC, while those winning a WSOP Circuit ring but not qualified for the GCC, as well as those players who managed to make it to the top 100 of the WSOP Player of the Year race are also allowed to directly buy into the event for $10,000.
Overall, 128 players have already qualified for the GCC but that will increase to 143, with the ongoing WSOP Super Circuit Online Series running on GGPoker also giving away two extra seats, and with additional 13 seats up for grabs at the Season Finale online event in June.
Among those who qualified are Massoud Eskandari and Jeff Trudeau Jr, both of whom were crowned casino champions at the WSOP Circuit events held at the Bicycle Casino and Harrah’s Atlantic City respectively. The full list of qualifiers is available on WSOP.com.
The automatic entrants will each receive an invitation for the online GCC, but they need to be located in Nevada or New Jersey to successfully take part. Those based in Delaware will not be able to participate in the GCC, but they can still play in the Circuit finale. In the event that a Delaware player wins the auto-bid, the spot would be given to the next highest-performing player from Nevada or NJ.
WSOP Still Pushing Through
Executive Director of the WSOP Ty Stewart said they look forward to returning to Harrah’s Cherokee next year, but for the meantime, the action needs to continue, online. The pandemic forced the postponement and cancellation of several WSOP-sponsored events this year, including 14 Circuit stops.
Thankfully, online poker has come to the rescue, and the WSOP then teamed up with GGPoker for the first-ever WSOP Super Circuit Online Series. The mega series kicked off on May 3, and will conclude on May 31, featuring a massive $100 million guarantee, the biggest prize pool ever in online poker history. The online festival is awarding 18 Circuit gold rings, and two seats to the GCC.
In April, the 51^st edition of the WSOP was officially postponed. The event, which was scheduled to take place this summer at The Rio, could take place this fall, at a still undetermined date. However with COVID-19 continuing to pose a threat to our health and safety, live poker could still not operate by that time, and the only option left for organizers would be to take the action to the virtual felts.