Four 2018 WSOP Online Events Prove Successful

The World Series of Poker organizers took their online poker offerings to a new level this year. The build-up has been slow, with one in 2016 and three in 2017. The 2018 WSOP had four of them, this time with a new feature of combined player pools with New Jersey players.

As expected, it was successful. One of the events was even won by a player competing online from New Jersey, and well-known pro player Chance Kornuth won another.

While the US online poker market remains a sluggish and unpredictable entity, WSOP’s strategy with it has been successful. The only online poker site in Nevada and Delaware and now the leader in the New Jersey market could easily overplay its hand, but the measured course has proven to be a winning one thus far.

Four Online Bracelet Winners

The 49^th annual WSOP scattered four online bracelet events throughout its 2018 summer schedule with as much variety as four events can muster. And all four were reported on the WSOP website’s results as any other event, minus only the live player photos.

Details and results from the four tournaments were as follows:

Event 10:  $365 WSOP.com Online NLHE

–Total entries:  2,972

—–Unique entries:  2,123

—–Reentries:  849

–Total prize pool:  $974,816

–Players paid:  333

–Winner:  William “Twooopair” Reymond ($154,996)

Apparently I was not dreaming, I REALLY won a bracelet. Thanks for an awesome day @WSOP #WSOP pic.twitter.com/VW4ot61Rw9

— William Reymond (@WilliamReymond) June 6, 2018

Event 47:  $565 WSOP.com Online PLO Six-Handed

–Total entries:  1,223

—–Unique entries:  657

—–Reentries:  566

–Total prize pool:  $635,960

–Players paid:  99

–Winner:  Matthew “mendey” Mendez ($135,077)

PocketFiver Matthew 'MattEMenz' Mendez made history this morning as the first player to win a WSOP bracelet online in a state other than Nevada. Mendez won the $565 PLO event playing from his home in Sicklerville, New Jersey.

— Lance Bradley (@Lance_Bradley) June 23, 2018

Event 61:  $1K WSOP.com Online NLHE Championship

–Total entries:  1,635

—–Unique entries:  1,180

—–Reentries:  455

–Total prize pool:  $1,553,250

–Players paid:  180

–Winner:  Ryan “Toosick” Tosoc ($238,778)

Ryan 'toosick' Tosoc outlasts Anthony 'flawlessbink' Maio in $1K online championship.

Tosoc wins first bracelet 10 days after finishing sixth in the $25K PLO high roller. https://t.co/6oRh6Gukpe pic.twitter.com/qStJTjytMH

— WSOP (@WSOP) June 30, 2018

Event 63:  $3,200 WSOP.com Online NLHE High Roller

–Total entries:  480

—–Unique entries:  356

—–Reentries:  124

–Total prize pool:  $1,459,200

–Players paid:  63

–Winner:  Chance “BingShui” Kornuth ($341,598)

Yessssss. Won my second bracelet without any live tells ?? ? in the $3200 @wsop.com online event!!!! @ChipLDR

— Chance Kornuth (@ChancesCards) July 1, 2018

It should be noted that all of the above tournaments allowed for unlimited reentries, and they were all single-day events.

Mendez, who took down Event 47, did so from New Jersey, while the other players competed from Nevada. The new shared liquidity agreement that includes Nevada, Delaware, and New Jersey, which launched on May 1, greatly expanded the player pools for all four events.

Breakdowns and Upticks

Per an Online Poker Report graphic, the number of players located in Nevada far outweighed those in New Jersey during the four bracelet events on the WSOP website.

–$365 NLHE = 1,558 Nevada, 565 New Jersey

–$565 PLO = 550 Nevada, 107 New Jersey

–$1,000 NLHE = 1,016 Nevada, 163 New Jersey

–$3,200 NLHE = 333 Nevada, 23 New Jersey

It is no surprise that the higher the buy-in, the lower the player count. But the percentages tell a story of a drastic increase in New Jersey players versus those in Nevada as the buy-ins rose.

–$365 buy-in = 26.6% of players from New Jersey

–$565 buy-in = 16.3% of players from New Jersey

–$1K buy-in = 13.8% of players from New Jersey

–$3,200 buy-in = 6.5% of players from New Jersey

There could be several reasons for this, most likely that New Jersey players are primarily fond of lower stakes but also because many of the players with bigger bankrolls were in Las Vegas for the WSOP so played from Nevada. In addition, Nevada numbers were boosted by players in the state from around the world for the WSOP.

Obviously, the executives running the WSOP online site will be analyzing a plethora of data when planning next year’s online events, as well as any events going forward now that Nevada, Delaware, and New Jersey player pools are linked.

Regardless of those numbers, however, the overall participation in all four online events was significant, as was virtual attendance in many of the WSOP’s online series events scheduled for the past few weeks. As long as there is growth, there is hope for the still-burgeoning US online poker market.