WSOP Main Event to feature 22 re-entry flights?
Controversy over the weekend over speculation that the GGPoker WSOP Main Event could favour the players with deep pockets.
Last weekend we brought you the schedule for the GGPoker World Series of Poker Online, which featured the biggest online MTT in history with a $5,000 buy-in and $25 million guarantee.
Not all the details about the schedule have been released yet, most notably when the Day 1 flights for that Main Event will be or how many there are. Day 2 of the Main Event is September 5.
However, on Friday a story started doing the rounds that there will be a staggering 22 Day 1 flights and that players can enter all of them (each day itself would be a freezeout).
This led to a massive outpouring of cynicism from the poker community:
22 starting flights for the main event! Wow! @pokerprojones you still think stars will run WCOOP after 80 events like this? There will be no money left by September. pic.twitter.com/EFqSQSG41F
— Patrick Leonard (@padspoker) June 26, 2020
If you’re a recreational player, let me honestly tell you your chances of doing good in the upcoming @WSOP GG Online Bracelet Main Event is far smaller than it should be.
It’s the Main. A Bracelet Event. Freezout is the way to go.
— João Vieira (@Naza114_oficial) June 27, 2020
Cant wait to see 22 different @phil_hellmuth entrances to the WSOP Main this year. The costume shop will be busy.
— Spraggy (@spraggy) June 26, 2020
Wait the 2020 WSOP Main Event only has 22 flights? I remember being promised 57 flights, what kinda BS is this
— âš¡ï¸Jeff Madsen (@JeffMadsenobv) June 26, 2020
2020 wsop main event on GG has 22 day 1 freeze out heats but you can fire 22 times if needed. This is:
— Salty (@msalsberg) June 26, 2020
It appears that the 22 starting flight figure was originally incorrectly reported by a few media outlets and at the time of writing the actual number has not been confirmed. However, GGPoker Ambassador Daniel Negreanu does appear to have confirmed that there will be multiple starting flights, all of which can be entered by players who bust the previous one:
Each heat is a freeze out.
At the time I wasn’t aware there would be multiple heats giving more people a chance to play across the globe.
— Daniel Negreanu (@RealKidPoker) June 26, 2020
It’s no justification. I was mistaken. I thought the event would be a freeze out but it’s only each heat that was a freeze out. I was wrong.
— Daniel Negreanu (@RealKidPoker) June 26, 2020
For most poker fans this still goes against the ethos of the Main Event, which whether it is live or online is considered a 'pure' once-a-year event that should be a freezeout. This will only further fuel the perception that re-entry events favour the professionals, especially if the number of starting flights is close to the rumoured 22.
It really depends on whether one considers the GGPoker WSOP Main Event this year's official Main Event or not. The plan still remains for the WSOP proper to take place in Vegas in Autumn and the WSOPE Main Event has been a re-entry before.
Either way it looks like the World Series of Poker Online is going to be contentious before it even starts this year.
Do you consider this event 2020's official WSOP Main Event? Let us know in the comments:
