There couldn’t be a better time for the World Poker Tour to be affiliated with PartyPoker. With live poker practically at a standstill around the world due to coronavirus shutdowns, the WPT has an online option.
As it turns out, the WPT was already in talks with PartyPoker to coordinate offering some events online. And now, just two weeks after the company announced its first WPT Online Series by PartyPoker, there is more. This time it’s the WPTDeepStacks Online Series.
WPTDS For French and Spanish Players
When the WPT had to cancel a number of tournaments due to coronavirus concerns, several of them happened to be WPTDeepStacks events. Further, one of them was the WPTDS European Championship scheduled for April in Deauville, France.
So, WPTDeepStacks announced its partnership with PartyPoker to offer the first WPTDS Online Series. It will be hosted on the PartyPoker platform available in France and Spain.
The French WPTDS series will run April 5-20, complete with 47 tournaments and €2.8 million in prize pool guarantees. The buy-ins will range from €2 to €2,000. The high-stakes players will be able to compete in any of three events -- €500 buy-in, €1K buy-in, and €2K buy-in, each with a €100K guarantee.
French players will have three Main Event offerings:
€5 buy-in WPTDS Micro Main Event (18 starting flights, €20K GTD)€50 buy-in WPTDS Mini Main Event (18 starting flights, €200K GTD)€250 buy-in WPTDS Main Event (18 starting flights, €500K GTD)
For Spanish players, they will have 44 tournaments in their series with €2.5 million in guarantees, also running April 5-20. They will not have the high roller options. Their buy-ins throughout the series will range from €2 to €250, but their Main Events are the same as in France.
The full schedules can be found on the PartyPoker LIVE website.
https://twitter.com/WPTDeepStacks/status/1245041271317491712?s=20
Online Series Planned for Years
Of course, the coronavirus pandemic could not have been predicted, especially in the scope by which it has affected so many countries around the world. But the WPT had plans to offer its product online anyway. Those talks began with PartyPoker a couple of years ago.
WPT CEO Adam Pliska explained to PokerNews that the partnership was “terrific” in that PartyPoker sponsors many of the WPT events around the globe already. The two simply wanted to develop a solid online poker tournament schedule, one that respected the WPT name.
They originally hoped to announce the online series to run in May…but when COVID-19 forced the WPT to cancel events around the world, they moved it up. “The timing worked out well,” said Pliska. “You quickly react to the market.”
https://twitter.com/WPT/status/1244671090627981313?s=20
WPT Online Series Reminder
Speaking of the WPT Online Series by PartyPoker, the World Poker Tour announced it on March 13, the same day that it officially cancelled many of its live events on the main tour and WPTDeepStacks.
The inaugural WPT Online Series will feature a WPT500 tournament, WPTDS event, and a Main Event, though there are a total of 10 events with the WPT name. Those 10 events offer a total of $15 million in prize pool guarantees.
PartyPoker will also run other events throughout that time of May 10-26, so players will have the opportunity to compete for shares of $30 million in total guarantees.
A quick look at the WPT portion of the schedule is as follows:
Event 1 / May 10-26: $3,200 WPT Online NLHE Main Event (5 starting flights, $5M GTD)Event 2 / May 10-18: $530 WPT500 NLHE (10 starting flights, $1M GTD)Event 3 / May 12: $5,200 WPT NLHE Bounty Hunter ($1M GTD)Event 4 / May 14: $5,200 WPT PLO ($500K GTD)Event 5 / May 18-19: $1,100 WPT NLHE 6-Max (3 starting flights, $1M GTD)Event 6 / May 19-20: $5,200 WPT Mix-Max ($1M GTD)Event 7 / May 21: $25,500 WPT NLHE Super High Roller ($2M GTD)Event 8 / May 21: $2,100 WPT NLHE Turbo PKO ($500K GTD)Event 9 / May 24-25: $10,300 WPT NLHE High Roller ($2M GTD)Event 10 / May 25-26: $1,600 WPTDeepStacks (3 starting flights, $1M GTD)
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