Fall Event Drawing Closer Though Many Challenges Remain

Published on June 6th, 2020 2:24 pm EST

The live version of the biggest poker event of the year is in doubt for 2020.In April of 2020, the World Series of Poker announced that they would be postponing the 2020 WSOP until this fall.

Earlier this week, many Las Vegas casinos re-opened their doors to the public, though numerous high-profile poker rooms elected to remain closed. The Wynn Poker Room, for instance, has continued to remain closed as the company continues to "evaluate the safety of the poker landscape".

The Nevada Gaming Control Board issued strict recommendations for those casinos that wished to re-open their poker rooms earlier this week.

The biggest restriction? No more than four players at a table.

This significantly cuts down on the social aspect of live poker, and it creates a massive problem for poker rooms that wish to host tournaments. How many people would choose to play in a tournament where the action is just 4-handed?

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Let's assume that the World Series of Poker would want to host their series in October/November.

This leaves just four months from now until the possible start of the World Series of Poker.

Many countries throughout the world are still not allowing international flights. The Canada/US border continues to remain closed. The United States recently restricted travel from Brazil, which is suffering from a spike in Coronavirus cases.

In short, international travel continues to be a mess right now.

Can the World Series of Poker possibly schedule an event under these circumstances? How many people would actually make plans to go? One of the biggest reasons behind the success of the World Series of Poker is its ability to pull players from all over the world. Who is travelling from Europe or South America or Australia to play the World Series of Poker under these circumstances?

And could the World Series of Poker operate under a 4-handed format? How would that work?

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GGPoker and the World Series of Poker recently collaborated on a tournament series that was extremely successful.

In fact, the High Roller Championship, which had a total guaranteed prize pool of $10 million, ended up beating its guarantee.

With all of the challenges currently facing the "live" World Series of Poker series, don't be surprised if the entire event is moved online in the fall.

Given the current circumstances, hosting a well-attended "live" World Series of Poker series this fall seems downright impossible.

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Filed Under: Other Poker News

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