Following confirmation that the 2020 World Series of Poker (WSOP) is officially postponed, the poker community is now looking forward to a potential fall edition, a first in WSOP’s long history, with organizers hinting that they are likely to introduce major changes as a result of not being able to hold the festival in its usual summer schedule.
The WSOP was originally scheduled to take place from May 26 to July 15 at the Rio All Suite All-Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, featuring a total of 101 bracelet events, 87 live, and 14 online, spread across more than a month of top-notch poker action. Now that it has been postponed, organizers will have to rework the schedule if they want to hold the WSOP during the fall.
WSOP organizers will have to put their heads together to look at a potential timeframe and also what events will be dropped and what events will still feature on the schedule. We take a guess based on popularity of past events and the demand of players on what events will feature for the potential fall edition and how long the tournament will last.
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12-Day Schedule
The WSOP will need to accommodate a few other events during the fall. This includes WSOP Europe which is set to take place at King’s Resort in Rozvadov Czech Republic. This could mean that the series would need to adopt a condensed approach. The WSOP Circuit stop, usually scheduled for November and runs for 12 days at Planet Hollywood in Vegas, could serve as blueprint for an updated WSOP schedule.
So assuming organizers take the super-condensed route and decide to hold the festival within 12 days, how many events will likely take place?
The WSOP might still stick to the original three-events-a-day schedule, though obviously they will now need to come up with a short list of events, which could include a mix of Championship events, Turbo Bounties, the $50K High Roller, the $100K Super High Roller, the Main Event, the more affordable $500 Big 50 and the $50K Poker Players Championship.
30 Day WSOP
The 12-day schedule would appear unattractive to some, especially for players who are used to taking part in some exclusive WSOP events, such as the Ladies Championship and Seniors Championship.
More events can be included if the organizers ultimately find a way to hold a month-long festival, featuring the marquee events, plus a lot more smaller-stakes events and mixed games, including Mixed Triple Draw, Razz, Mixed Big Bet, Stud Hi-Lo, some pot-limit Omaha and no-limit hold’em events, Monster Stack and the Little One for One Drop.
Of course, all of these will remain as guesses and speculation. We will have to wait until the WSOP makes another announcement for its fall schedule provide COVID-19 is dealt with.
