Will the WSOP be the biggest or smallest series ever?
It looked so good for the 2021 World Series of Poker but with mask mandates and no easing of travel restrictions, it could be a small affair.
A few months ago things were looking very promising for September's World Series of Poker. Live poker was booming in the States and social distancing measures were being lifted in Vegas as vaccination rates went up.
There was a lot of talk in poker circles and prop bets being proposed that we could be heading towards the biggest WSOP Main Event in history.
Now the picture does not look anywhere near as rosey. COVID cases are growing in Nevada, mandatory masks have been reintroduced and for overseas players to attend most of them will have to spend two weeks in countries like Canada first.
The problem appears to be that while vaccines are freely available, not enough Americans have had them. Vaccines have become the great political hot button issue of the time, not just in the US. All of which means that a WSOP that looked like it would be the biggest ever more likely will be the smallest one of the modern era.
Could masks kill the series?
I think the biggest single issue for the series will not be case numbers but whether masks are mandatory. If a county shows two weeks of decline in cases, the current mask mandates will be lifted, but only for vaccinated people.
That will be a bridge too far for a lot of Americans and not just the ones who have been opposed to masks and/or vaccines.
Putting aside the heated political debate around masks for a moment, it is undeniable they can be uncomfortable to wear for long periods of time. The days are long at the WSOP and some people will simply feel that the idea of 10 hours of masked poker for several weeks is not worth it. I myself have had no strong ideological issues with masks but have avoided the few chances I've had so far at live poker simply because masked poker doesn't sound fun when I can play online at home instead.
Then of course there are significant portions of the American population who are opposed to masks and in many cases vaccines. Given that the WSOP is still largely an American event I think this will lead to a sizeable drop in numbers. Ironically my April Fool's Day joke news this year looks like a shrew prophecy just a few months on.
An all American affair?
The other big issue is overseas players, whom I think simply will not turn up this year. The European professionals I have spoke to are not relishing first having to travel to Canada for two weeks before heading to Vegas. Travel expenses often can be the difference between winning and losing in live poker.
Few professionals will want to go through all that hassle and expense to then get to a socially restricted series with high COVID cases. There is even a chance (though I doubt it) they could get there and the WSOP is cancelled. It looked like it might be a very soft series to justify that hassle but, once again, I think the mask mandates will scare away a lot of the casual players.
Satellites have begun at GGPoker for the series and I suspect the numbers will be low for them. If a player is unable to attend, or wins multiple packages, they can take T$ instead. However, crucially, they can take $10,000 in T$ rather than the full package value of $12,500. This makes grinding them for the T$ only unprofitable (it's like an extra 25% rake). Given most operators do not let satellite winners take T$ these days, it suggests that GGPoker expect a lot of no shows for whatever reason.
So sadly I think that while we are nowhere near to the WSOP being cancelled, it is looking like a much smaller, all-American affair this year.
Would you travel for the WSOP this year? Let us know in the comments:
