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It’s a new year, although poker tournament organizers continue to confront the same challenges they faced during most of 2020.

About the World Series of Poker The World Series of Poker® is the largest, richest and most prestigious gaming event in the world, having awarded more than $3.29 billion in prize money and the prestigious gold bracelet, globally recognized as the sport’s top pri. 2020 World Series of Poker - $10,000 WSOP.com No-Limit Hold'em Main Event - Poker tournament results, including winners and their payouts and winnings.

As a means to meet those challenges, the World Series of Poker this week announced a new WSOP Online Circuit Series that will last throughout 2021.

Patterned after the live WSOP Circuit of past years, the online series will feature monthly 12- or 18-tournament series in which winners will receive WSOP-C gold rings.

The 2021 WSOP Online Circuit will culminate with the $250,000 WSOP Online Circuit Championship in December, which will award a WSOP gold bracelet to the winner.

Monthly online series similar in format to earlier live WSOP-C stops

A press release on Wednesday from the WSOP noted how “live poker remains a challenge due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” thus prompting the decision to create an expanded online series.

During 2020, the WSOP was able to stage a handful of live tournament series early in the year, including one in February at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino. However, from mid-March onward, all live WSOP-C events were cancelled and replaced by several online series on WSOP.com.

For the 2021 WSOP Online Circuit Series, tournaments will only be open to those playing on the WSOP Nevada and WSOP New Jersey sites.

There will be 12 WSOP-C tournament series in 2021, one per month. In most cases, the series schedule will contain 12 tournaments, similar to the schedule used in the past at live WSOP-C series stops. Roughly once per quarter will come an expanded “Super Circuit” series with 18 tournaments.

The Super Circuit series will include both $1,000 and $2,000high roller events and a $500 pot-limit Omaha event.

Extra tournament in the cards?

The announcement notes that a 13th tournament series might be added to the schedule at a later date “pending launch of the WSOP.com service in a newly regulated market.”

WSOP.com received regulatory approval to launch in Pennsylvania last year, and has indicated the new site will go live in 2021. There has been no announcement regarding whether or not the new WSOP PA player pool might be shared with those at other WSOP sites as part of a multi-state agreement, either initially or in the future.

As noted, winners of each tournament will receive a WSOP Circuit ring along with first-place prize money. In addition, the WSOP will be adding over $600,000 in prize money over the course of the year via “a variety of promotions and events.”

Casino branding, leaderboard and freerolls with added prize money

For the first time, some of the online tournament series will be “co-branded” via partnerships with various retail casinos.

Planet Hollywood, Bally’s, Paris Las Vegas and Harrah’s Las Vegas are among the Nevada properties that will be represented. Such tournaments will feature “‘cash at the cage’ buy-in and cash out availability while offering its out-of-market players special promotional rates to stay onsite” while they play.

There will be a 2021 WSOP Circuit Series Leaderboard as well, with all players who cash in events receiving points for their finishes.

The points will enable players to become eligible for freeroll events. They also will help players win their way into the year-ending $250,000 WSOP Online Circuit Championship (discussed below).

Also, the top 10 players each month will divide $10,000 worth of tournament tickets. Those 10 players will also win seats to play in that month’s $25,000 Monthly Freeroll where only that month’s event winners and top 10 points-getters will participate.

The $25,000 Monthly Freerolls are scheduled for the following dates:

• Feb. 2
• Mar. 2
• Apr. 1
• Apr. 29
• May 27
• Jun. 29
• Jul. 29
• Sep. 28
• Oct. 28
• Nov. 23
• Dec. 21

Players who play in a minimum number of tournaments each series who have not otherwise won their way into the Championship will be able to play another freeroll event, the Monthly Second Chance Fast Forward. That will be a winner-take-all tournament with first-prize being a seat in the Championship.

WSOP bracelet awaits $250K Championship winner

The $250,000 WSOP Online Circuit Championship will take place Dec. 21, 2021. Players can become eligible in a variety of ways:

• Winning any 2021 WSOP Online Circuit gold ring event
• Finishing with the most points in a given month to win Player of the Month
• Winning a Monthly Second Chance Fast Forward freeroll
• Finishing as one of the top 50 players on cumulative 2021 WSOP Circuit Series Leaderboard (if not already eligible)

World Series Of Poker Payout Chart

The Championship will be limited to a maximum of 256 entrants.

2021 World Series of Poker Online Circuit Series Schedule

The $5,000 buy-in Main Event of the World Series of Poker international series wrapped up on Saturday night with the top 4 finishers all taking home more than $1 million in prize money. With the typical World Series of Poker in Las Vegas postponed this year the action moved online and the World Series of Poker international series Main Event had a total prize pool of $27,559,500.

There were 5,802 buy-ins into the $5,000-entry Main Event. Notable entries included PSG star and Brazilian soccer phenom Neymar Jr. and former heavyweight boxing champion Riddick Bowe.

The final heads-up pairing came down to Bulgaria’s Stoyan Madanzhiev against Wenling Gao of China. On the final hand of the Main Event, Stoyan Madanzhiev flopped a straight which took down Gao’s pocket aces which is an absolutely brutal way to get knocked out heads-up. Looking down and seeing AA you think you are absolutely money and then your opponent flops a straight and poof, you’re gone.

For his second-place finish, Wenling Gao won $2.7 million. Not bad. Stoyan Madanzhiev took home a record $3.9 million for first place, the ‘largest prize in online poker history’. American Tyler Rueger won $1.9 million for 3rd place and New Zealand’s Thomas Ward brought home $1.35 million for his 4th place finish.

‘Poker Brat’ Phil Hellmuth busted in 750th right before the money bubble. In total, 728 spots were paid out across the $27,559,500 prize pool. There were three Americans at the final table with the other two, Tyler Cornell and Sam Taylor, finishing 8th and 9th respectively for $328,305 and $230,395.

In the final hand, 2nd place finisher Wenling Gao got all his chips in with AcAd only to see her opponent (yes, her) call with 7d6h. At that moment he had his opponent completely dominated. But Bulgaria’s Stoyan Madanzhiev miraculously flopped a 7-high straight and held on to win 1st place.

According to ESPN’s Chalk, some American participants moved internationally for this event which also allowed them to buy-in multiple times in the early stages:

The international series was hosted on GGPoker.com after the coronavirus pandemic forced the traditional World Series of Poker tournament in Las Vegas to be postponed. There were 5,802 entries into the $5,000 buy-in main event, creating a $27.6 million prize pool, the largest in online poker history.

Players were allowed to buy in three times during the early rounds of the main event and were required to be physically located in a jurisdiction that allowed online poker. Tournament officials said some American participants relocated to Mexico or Canada to take part in the tournament.

The main event was narrowed to 38 players entering Saturday’s final round. American Bryan Piccioli had the chip lead entering the final round but finished 23rd.

World Series Of Poker Game

It’s certainly a bummer not having the usual World Series of Poker footage on ESPN this year. It’s been a staple of Summer television for most of my life and watching these tournaments unfold online just doesn’t offer even a fraction of the same entertainment for me.

The official in-person 2020 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas hasn’t been rescheduled yet and with this year waning down they’re running out of time. Next year seems likely (to me) at this point.

World Series Poker Prizes

For more on this largest win in online poker history, you can head on over to ESPN’s Chalk.