The spread of the coronavirus and related precautionary measures around the world – and now in the United States – has impacted the poker world greatly. The affects on some poker entities are more significant in scope than others.
The World Poker Tour finished its WPT Rolling Thunder event on the main tour just days ago. As other organizers were cancelling tournaments and series everywhere, the WPT and Thunder Valley Casino pressed on to finish the one in progress. And they did so by declaring Tony Tran a two-time WPT champion.
At the same time, the powers-that-be knew that numerous WPT events would have to be cancelled, some already doing so. The WPT did publish a notice about cancelled or postponed events yesterday, but not before announcing its first online poker series with PartyPoker.
https://twitter.com/tonydunsttv/status/1238499534885412865?s=20
Schedule Changes Earlier This Week
By Thursday of this week, the WPTDeepStacks Maryland and WPTDS European Championship Deauville were removed from the schedule, as was the WPT Barcelona festival to be hosted in conjunction with PartyPoker.
The World Poker Tour also had to postpone the WPT Venetian for rescheduling, as well as the WPTDeepStacks Championship at Thunder Valley. And the WPTDS Amsterdam that was already underway at the Holland Casino was stopped midway through its first Main Event day per the Dutch government’s prohibition of large gatherings. Holland Casino was subsequently closed until at least March 31.
Full WPT Lists
As the changes began to pile up, the World Poker Tour issued a full statement on Friday, March 13, with lists of tournaments that were postponed, cancelled, or remaining on the schedule.
There were only two events cancelled with no plans to reschedule:
--WPTDS Amsterdam--WPTDS Vietnam
The list of postponed events was a bit longer, as casinos and the WPT plan to reschedule when possible
--March 13-17: WPT Venetian--March 20-23: WPTDS Maryland--March 27-30: WPTDS Jacksonville--March 31-April 6: WPT Barcelona--April 4-7: WPTDS Championship (Thunder Valley)--April 10-13: WPTDS European Championship (Deauville)--May 1-5: WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown
On the other hand, the WPT listed the following events as taking place per the schedule:
--March 31-April 2: WPT final tables at HyperX Esports Arena at Luxor in Las Vegas--April 3-5: WPTDS Johannesburg at Emperors Palace in South Africa--April 16-20: WPTDS Pittsburgh at Rivers in Pennsylvania--April 22-26: WPTDS Montreal at Playground Poker in Quebec--April 30-May 4: WPTDS Gold Coast at The Star in Queensland--May 15-18: WPT Choctaw in Oklahoma--May 15-18: WPTDS Big Stax at Parx in Pennsylvania--May 19-23: WPTDS Taiwan at Chinese Texas Hold’em Poker Association--May 31-June 2: WPT Tournament of Champions in Luxor in Las Vegas
This list may be updated. With the coronavirus completely in flux in America and around the world, and with air travel severely restricted, some of the other events may be cancelled or postponed in the coming days and weeks.
https://twitter.com/WPT/status/1238592676154322944?s=20
WPT Goes Online
As live events were being cancelled at a jarring speed, the World Poker Tour and Party Poker were working on a contingency plan behind the scenes.
On March 13, they announced the first-ever WPT Online Series in partnership with PartyPoker.
The series is scheduled to happen on PartyPoker (obviously) from May 10-26, 2020. It will include a WPTDeepStacks and WPT500 online, as well as a WPT Online Championship.
In total there will be $15 million in guarantees across the 10-event series. Of that amount, the WPT Main Event, WPT500, and WPTDeepStacks together total $7 million. The lineup is as follows:Event 1: WPT Online Main Event
Buy-in: $3,200Guarantee: $5 millionChips: 100KLevels: 20 minutesFormat: 1 reentry per flightStarting days: May 10, May 17, May 24, May 25Day 2: May 25Final day: May 26
Event 2: WPT500
Buy-in: $530Guarantee: $1 millionChips: 100KLevels: 15 minutesFormat: 1 reentry per flightStarting days: May 10-18Final day: May 18
Buy-in: $10,300Guarantee: $2 millionChips: 100KLevels: 20 minutesFormat: 1 reentryStarting day: May 24Final day: May 25
Event 10: WPTDeepStacks
Buy-in: $1,600Guarantee: $1 millionChips: 150KLevels: 15 minutesFormat: 1 reentry per flightStarting days: May 25-26Final day: May 26
The WPT and PartyPoker press releases note that there will a total of $30 million in tournament guarantees. The other $15 million GTD events that are not listed here should be in the tournament lobby on PartyPoker, as they consist of non-WPT-branded events but will take place during the same time period.
https://twitter.com/partypoker/status/1238437160660992002?s=20
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