The World Series of Poker made a lot of changes in 2020 and early 2021 to work around pandemic restrictions and avoid potential problems. But since the 2021 WSOP kicked off its live series in Las Vegas on September 30 – still running through November 23 – it became clear that they could host live poker tournaments safely. By adopting a vaccine mandate and upholding state guidelines for masks and other health-related protocols, the WSOP in Las Vegas has proven to be a success.
With that, they decided to revive the WSOP Circuit for its 17th season. It will be live again beginning in late November 2021 and running through the middle of May 2022.
Current Action Still Online
During 2020, when all live WSOP Circuit events stopped, they took the series online. GGPoker hosted some WSOP-C events for international players, and WSOP.com hosted in the United States but only for players in Nevada and New Jersey.
As January 2021 indicated that the pandemic would continue to affect live poker options, the World Series announced a full year of WSOP Circuit Online events. There were international events, but the domestic tour was set for Nevada and New Jersey only through the end of 2021. That appears to continue as planned.
The names of the monthly series changed nothing about their availability. All were only open to players in Nevada and New Jersey, hosted online at WSOP.com. The various names of the stops were literally in name only. That schedule seems to be on track to continue this year as follows:
-Paris Las Vegas Online Circuit: Nov 10-21 with 12 ring events & $25K freeroll on Nov 23-Harrah’s Las Vegas Online Circuit: Dec 8-19 with 12 ring events & $25K freeroll on Dec 21
The exact online schedules for those two series have yet to be posted on the WSOP website.
The entire year of online events will culminate in a $250K Year-End Championship on December 28. This, too, will be online and offer freeroll entries to all players who won gold rings online in 2021, won monthly leaderboard competitions and Second Chance Fast Forward tournaments, and finished in the top 50 of the Cumulative Circuit Leaderboard for the year.
Returning to Live in 2021 and 2022
Back on track, this 17th season of the WSOP Circuit for the Americas – mostly the United States – will start after the 2021 WSOP wraps in Las Vegas and run until the WSOP 2022 prepares to begin next summer.
According to WSOP Senior VP and Executive Director Ty Stewart, “It’s been too long, so it’s great to see the Circuit hitting the road once again. The WSOP-C is one of our most important initiatives, allowing regional players to experience big-time poker and providing grinders a platform to earn a living.”
The full series will begin on Thanksgiving Day and run through mid-May 2022. All tournaments will use the big blind ante format of the last live WSOP-C season. Each stop will offer at least 12 gold ring-awarding events (most starting at $250 buy-ins) and culminating in a $1,700 buy-in Main Event.
Each stop will need to clear its proposed schedule with the proper regulatory bodies. This means that some will include seniors-only and ladies-only events, and others may not. “Each stop is encouraged to add” those events, per the WSOP press release.
The 2021-2022 WSOP-C season will travel the United States but also feature a stop in Canada and one in Aruba.
New 2021-2022 Live Schedule
Here is a full list of the dates and locations of the 2021-2022 WSOP Circuit season:
-November 25-December 6: Harrah’s Cherokee in Cherokee, North Carolina-December 4-15: Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles, California-December 9-19: Hilton Aruba Caribbean in Aruba-January 6-17: Choctaw Durant in Durant, Oklahoma-January 12-23: Deerfoot Inn in Calgary, Alberta, Canada-January 13-24: Thundery Valley Casino in Lincoln, California-January 20-31: Horseshoe Tunica in Tunica, Mississippi-February 3-14: Isle Casino Pompano Park in Pompano Beach, Florida-March 10-21: Hard Rock Oklahoma in Tulsa, Oklahoma-March 17-28: Turning Stone Casino in Verona, New York-April 7-18: Harrah’s Cherokee in Cherokee, North Carolina-April 21-May 2: Horseshoe Tunica in Tunica, Mississippi-May 5-16: Harrah’s New Orleans in New Orleans, Louisiana
Harrah’s Cherokee Schedule Set
As mentioned, the first stop of the new 2021-2022 season will be at Harrah’s Cherokee. That establishment already set the schedule. It is as follows:
-Event 1 on Nov 25: $400 NLHE Double Stack ($25K GTD)-Event 2 on Nov 26-27: $400 NLHE ($500K GTD)-Event 3 on Nov 27: $400 NLHE ($100K GTD)-Event 4 on Nov 28-29: $600 NLHE ($100K GTD)-Event 5 on Nov 29: $400 NLHE 6-Max ($100K GTD)-Event 6 on Nov 29-30: $600 PLO ($50K GTD)-Event 7 on Nov 30: $400 NLHE Monster Stack ($400K GTD)-Event 8 on Dec 2: $400 NLHE ($50K GTD)-Event 9 on Dec 2: $1,100 NLHE ($100K GTD)-Event 10 on Dec 3-5: $1,700 NLHE Main Event ($1M GTD)-Event 11 on Dec 3: $400 NLHE (no guarantee listed)-Event 12 on Dec 4: $400 NLHE ($75K GTD)-Event 13 on Dec 5-6: $400 NLHE ($50K GTD)
While stops are encouraged to start buy-ins at $250 and offer exclusive events for seniors and women, this stop did not do any of that. Note that the schedule shows flights for Events 2, 7, and 10, but no specific flight information is listed.
In addition, all events offer unlimited reentries except the Main Event, which offers one reentry per flight.
https://twitter.com/WSOP/status/1453437981373706241?s=20
