The World Series of Poker (WSOP) is 'the oldest, largest, most prestigious, and most media-hyped gaming competition in the world'. It is held annually since 1970 in Las Vegas. Since 1972, the Main Event of the WSOP has been the $10,000 buy-in no-limit Texas Hold 'Em tournament.

Just 49 days before the new year, the World Series of Poker has announced that there will indeed be a $10,000 WSOP main event world champion decided in 2020.

Despite the doubt created by a global pandemic, the WSOP sent out a press release on Friday, Nov. 13 revealing that the biggest and richest poker tournament in the world would take place for the 51st consecutive year.

The 2020 WSOP main event will once again feature a $10,000 buy-in, with no-limit hold’em as the game. While those basic facts remain the same, quite a lot will be different for this main event.

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3. He World Series of Poker Global Casino Championship, which had been scheduled for Aug. 11-13 in Cherokee, North Carolina, before the coronavirus pandemic, has now been moved online. The event, featuring $1 million in guaranteed prize money and open only to certain qualifiers, will now be held on WSOP.com in Nevada and New Jersey on Sept.
4. The World Series of Poker main event normally fields thousands of professional and amateur players who descend upon Las Vegas from around the world, making it one of the biggest events of the year.

“There must be a World Champion in 2020,” said WSOP Executive Director Ty Stewart. “Poker’s history is too important. It’s a unique format for the main event, but this is a unique year. We want to keep players’ health and safety top of mind and still deliver a great televised showcase for the game we love.”

“Due to travel restrictions, and out of an abundance of caution for player safety, this year’s format will be unique, where early round play will begin online with one entry on WSOP.com or GGPoker.com, before shifting to a live setting for final table action on two continents,” said the press release from the WSOP. “Each ‘bracket’ will pay out prize money to tournament entrants independently. The final table will be a world’s first, as an ultimate heads-up duel for the World Championship, where $1 million in prize money will be on the line courtesy of Caesars Entertainment, Inc. and GGPoker. The Main Event will be held consistent to the traditional ‘freeze-out’ standards of the Main Event, offering only single entry, as well as the longest levels and deepest stacks ever offered on the online platform.”

There will essentially be both a US-facing and international main event which will be run online and play down to a final table. The two events will then play out those final tables live at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas and the King’s Casino Rozvadov, with the two champions of those events meeting in a final heads-up showdown for the ultimate title and an added $1 million prize.

The ‘Domestic Tournament’ kicks off on Sunday, Dec. 13, and will be available to all players within the borders or Nevada and New Jersey. The final table is expected to be set the following day. The last nine players standing will reconvene on Monday, Dec. 28 to play to a winner. ESPN is set to air coverage of the event, featuring commentary from Lon McEachern and Norman Chad.

The ‘International Tournament’ will feature three starting flights on Nov. 29, and Dec. 5 and 6. The final table is scheduled to be set on Dec. 7, with the live final table at King’s Casino on Tuesday, Dec. 15.

“All in-person tournaments, domestic and international, will be subject to special COVID rules and procedures, the details of which will be published at a later date and will require players to undergo a required health screening prior to live participation,” the WSOP noted in their release. “All participants must agree to abide by all applicable rules.”

The final heads-up showdown between the domestic and international winners will take place at the Rio on Dec. 30, with the championship gold bracelet and the $1 million in added prize money on the line.

The WSOP was set to award a record number of gold bracelets this year, with 101 events originally planned to run from late May through the middle of July, but was indefinitely put on hold along with the rest the live poker scene during the early months of the pandemic.

Where Is The World Series Of Poker Held In Las Vegas

The series joined a number of other high-profile poker tournaments in hosting an online version of their events during the spring and summer months. The WSOP Online awarded 85 gold bracelets from the start of July through early September, with events spread across two separate online poker platforms. A total of 283,983 entries were made throughout the series, with $174.5 million in prize money awarded along the way.

It’s been all gimmels for Gershon Distenfeld at the 2020 World Series of Poker main event.

The Orthodox Jewish resident of Bergenfield, New Jersey, is one of nine contestants to advance to the last round of the no-limit Texas Hold ‘em tournament, whose winner — considered to be the world champion of poker in a typical year — takes home a $1,553,256 cash prize.

In an interview on the morning show “Bloomberg Surveillance” Tuesday, Distenfeld said that he was able to compete in the tournament because it was mostly played online due to the coronavirus. The pandemic also compressed the schedule into two days, rather than the usual 10 — meaning he didn’t have to take off too much time from his day job at the asset management firm AllianceBernstein, where he is director of credit.

“Poker is a lot like investing,” he told Bloomberg’s Jon Ferro. “It’s making decisions based on improbability with incomplete information.”

But there was a crucial bit of knowledge that enabled him to go all-in on the competition: Because the two playing days were Dec. 13-14, and the final table is scheduled on Dec. 28, Distenfeld — whose online handle is “jets613” — wouldn’t need to play on Shabbat.

The World Series of Poker main event normally fields thousands of professional and amateur players who descend upon Las Vegas from around the world, making it one of the biggest events of the year in Sin City. Because the competition was held online, entrants had to be physically located in Nevada or New Jersey, where online gambling is legal — narrowing the field considerably.

Having made the final table sixth in total chip count, Distenfeld is guaranteed at least $98,813 in prize money. (Sixth place is slotted $215,222.) The runner-up bags over $1 million.

The kosher poker ace enters the final round well off the lead, where Joseph Hebert sits on a pot more than double the size of the second-place holder’s. But comebacks from seventh (Pius Heinz, 2011) and eighth place (2014, Martin Jacobson) have happened in recent memory.

When he’s not placing bets, Distenfeld maintains a personal blog, The Right Side Of History, which he began in September to discuss the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Bergen County Jewish community. His first post, “Sacrificing Our Children on the Altar of Covid Fear,” an appeal to dial down precautions at Jewish day schools, was widely circulated and drew over 100 comments.

Where Is The World Series Of Poker Held