2020 WSOP Expanding On History of Online Bracelet Events
History is made every year at the World Series of Poker. It’s part of what makes the WSOP one of the most enduring and alluring brands in the poker industry to this day.
This year, a different type of history has already been made. For the first time since its inception in 1970, the WSOP live events have been postponed. This has forced the WSOP to move in a different, and in some ways, uncharted direction. The WSOP summer series is going to take place entirely online with players battling for gold bracelets by clicking buttons as opposed to shuffling chips.
Additionally, the WSOP has selected a partner in GGPoker, to give players outside of the United States their first shots at an online bracelet.
Holding their entire gold bracelet series online is a first for the WSOP as is taking on an outside online partner to offer bracelets. But, of course, it’s by no means the first time a bracelet will be won online. The WSOP has five years under their belts of expanding their online poker footprint with a total of 18 bracelets events having already been played out.
So, before we push ahead to look at a whole new crop of online bracelet winners, we are taking a look back at how the WSOP Online bracelet events have evolved.
2015
Nearly two years after the launch of WSOP.com in the state of Nevada, officials at the summer series announced the first-ever official online bracelet event. The $1,000 WSOP.com ONLINE Championship was the lone online event on the 68-event 2015 schedule. The prize pool reached $859,750 as 905 entries turned the event into the largest regulated online poker tournament in the U.S. at the time.
With all of the players needing to be in Nevada, the final six took their chip stacks offline and batted for the bracelet inside the Rio. The final table included David Tuthill, Craig Varnell, and Anthony ‘casedismissed’ Spinella who went on to win the first online gold bracelet and $197,743.
| Year | Event | Entries | Prize Pool | Winner | First |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Event #64 $1,000 WSOP.com Online Championship | 905 | $859,750 | Anthony 'casedismissed' Spinella | $197,743 |
2016
In 2016, the WSOP ran it back. They offered the same $1,000 WSOP.com ONLINE Championship with the same format, bringing the final six players back to a live setting to play it out. The field saw a dramatic increase in year-over-year participants as 1,247 runners, a 38% increase, pushed the prize pool to $1,184,650.
Colorado native turned Las Vegas local Clayton ‘SLARKDUCK’ Maguire took down a career-high score of $210,279 from a final table where he was the only local participant.
| Year | Event | Entries | Prize Pool | Winner | First |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Event #66 $1,000 WSOP.com Online Championship | 1247 | $1,184,650 | Clayton 'SLARKDUCK' Maguire | $210,279 |
2017
The first expansion of the online schedule took place in 2017. In addition to the $1,000 WSOP.com ONLINE Championship, players were offered a lower buy-in event and the first-ever WSOP.com ONLINE High Roller.
It was also the first year that the online events would play out online as opposed to a final table in the Amazon room. Nipun ‘Javatinii’ Java took down the $1,000 WSOP.com ONLINE Championship for his second bracelet of the series and a $237,668 payday. The Championship event again grew in size, however with a more modest increase. The 1,312 runners and a prize pool of $1,246,400 represented a roughly 5% field increase.
It was former WSOP Main Event final tablist Thomas ‘FLOATZ’ Cannuli that booked the biggest online win of the year. Cannuli topped the 424 players of the first-ever $3,333 WSOP.com ONLINE High Roller for a $322,815 score, the largest haul of any online to that date and a win that continues to be the third-largest online bracelet payday to date.
The online events were also starting to generate a good deal of rake. In 2017, online events raked just over $225,000 as opposed to the $62,350 of the single event of the previous year.
| Year | Event | Entries | Prize Pool | Winner | First |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Event #8 $333 WSOP.com ONLINE NLHE | 651 | $325,500 | Bryan Hollis | $68,817.00 |
| 2017 | Event #61 $3,333 WSOP.com ONLINE NLHE High Roller | 424 | $1,335,600 | Thomas 'FLOATZ' Cannuli | $322,815.00 |
| 2017 | Event #71 $1,000 WSOP.com Online Championship | 1312 | $1,246,400 | Nipun 'Javatinii' Java | $237,668.00 |
2018
Once again, history was made in the online arena in 2018. Thanks to the multi-state online pact that was agreed to just before the start of the WSOP that allows players in Nevada, New Jersey, and Delaware to play against each other, players in New Jersey were able to compete in gold bracelet events without heading to Nevada.
The WSOP added a fourth online offering. And with the influx of Garden State online grinders, every online bracelet event of the year turned set a record of some kind.
The first online bracelet event, a $365 tournament, drew 2,972 runners, which was far-and-away the largest field ever to battle for an online gold bracelet.
In the second event, Matthew ‘mendey’ Mendez then became the first player to ever win a bracelet from outside of Nevada by winning the $565 Online bracelet event for over $135,000.
The $1,000 WSOP.com ONLINE Championship again hit a new high for entries when Ryan ‘Toosick’ Tosoc defeated a field of 1,635 entries for over $238,000, a nearly 25% increase in runners from the year before.
Finally, Chance ‘BingShui’ Kornuth set a new record for the largest online bracelet event payday by winning the $3,200 High Roller for $341,598.
| Year | Event | Entries | Prize Pool | Winner | First |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Event #10 $365 WSOP.com ONLINE NLHE | 2972 | $974,816 | William 'Twooopair' Reymond | $154,996 |
| 2018 | Event #47 $565 WSOP.com ONLINE PLO 6-Max | 1223 | $635,960 | Matthew 'mendey' Mendez | $135,077 |
| 2018 | Event #61 $1,000 1,000 WSOP.com Online Championship | 1635 | $1,553,250 | Ryan 'Toosick' Tosoc | $238,778 |
| 2018 | Event #63 $3,200 WSOP.com ONLINE NLHE High Roller | 480 | $1,459,200 | Chance 'BingShui' Kornuth | $341,598 |
2019
In 2019, there was a worry about the growth of online events as the U.S. Department of Justice issued a new opinion of the Wire Act . The opinion put in jeopardy the ability for players in New Jersey to take part in the upcoming World Series of Poker. However, a New Hampshire judge vacated the newly issued DOJ opinion and cleared New Jersey players to fortify what became a nine-event online bracelet schedule.
Some of the biggest names in both the live and online arenas captured bracelets in 2019 including the first for New Jersey-based top-ranked U.S. online pros Yong ‘LuckySpewy1’ Kwon and Daniel ‘centrfieldr’ Lupo. Shawn ‘bucky21’ Buchanan, Taylor ‘Galactar’ Paur, and Upeshka ‘gomezhamburg’ De Silva also booked victories.
Well-known pro Brandon ‘DrOctogon’ Adams won the $3,200 High Roller bracelet event for the largest online bracelet score to date of $411,560.
In total, the nine online events on the 2019 schedule generated just over $755,000 in rake.
| Year | Event | Entries | Prize Pool | Winner | First |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Event #7 $400 WSOP.com ONLINE NLHE | 2825 | $1,017,000 | Yong 'LuckySpewy1' Kwon | $165,263 |
| 2019 | Event #24 $600 WSOP.com ONLINE PLO 6-Max | 1216 | $656,640 | Josh 'loofa' Pollock | $139,740 |
| 2019 | Event #38 $600 WSOP.com ONLINE NLHE Knockout Bounty | 1224 | $673,200 | Upeshka 'gomezhamburg' De Silva | $100,262 |
| 2019 | Event #46 $500 WSOP.com ONLINE NLHE Turbo Deepstack | 1767 | $795,180 | Dan 'centrfieldr' Lupo | $145,273 |
| 2019 | Event #55 $1,000 WSOP.com ONLINE NLHE Double Stack | 1333 | $1,266,350 | Jason 'TheBigGift' Gooch | $241,492 |
| 2019 | Event #68 $1,000 WSOP.com Online Championship | 1750 | $1,662,500 | Nicholas 'Illari' Baris | $303,738 |
| 2019 | Event #74 $3,200 WSOP.com ONLINE NLHE High Roller | 593 | $1,802,720 | Brandon 'DrOctagon' Adams | $411,560 |
| 2019 | Event #76 $800 WSOP.com ONLINE NLHE 8-Max | 1560 | $1,170,000 | Shawn 'bucky21' Buchanan | $223,119 |
| 2019 | Event #88 $500 WSOP.com ONLINE NLHE Summer Saver | 1859 | $836,550 | Taylor 'Galactar' Paur | $149,241 |
2020
The previously scheduled 2020 World Series of Poker was set to have another increase in events, upping the total to 14. Now, the adjustment to an extensive online schedule in the face of the coronavirus pandemic gives players a wealth of opportunities to win some online hardware.
With 85 total bracelets up for grabs, every current online bracelet event record should expect to be shattered. More than half of the bracelets will be contested on WSOP’s online partner GGPoker which means that players from all over the world, who never had the opportunity to compete for a bracelet, will all of a sudden be able to grind for one.
From prize pools to paydays, the numbers in this year’s event should soar as players make plans to be online to add their name to the WSOP history books.
