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On Tuesday, June 15, the complete schedule of the 2021 World Series of Poker (WSOP) was released. The most extravagant poker festival on the planet will be making a comeback after a 26-month-long hiatus from September 30 to November 23 at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.
The 2021 WSOP schedule has 88 bracelet events, with entry buy-ins ranging from $400 to $250,000. The organizers and poker community are both predicting this to be the biggest WSOP ever. Some of the key changes/additions to this year’s schedule include:
> The opening weekend will be headlined by an NLHE event with three starting flights, with an affordable buy-in and multi-million-dollar guarantee. To meet the hefty guarantee, the opening weekend must attract 10,000 participants. Players can choose from three starting flights on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday – or play them all.
> WSOP mainstays like The Millionaire Maker, Monster Stack, Double Stack, Colossus, Crazy Eights, and Closer are evenly spaced each weekend throughout the series, each with two starting flights, one on Friday and the other on Saturday.
> The new $1,000 Flip and Go Presented by GGPoker will be making its debut.
> All living Poker Hall of Fame members are invited to freeroll into the $1,979 No-Limit Hold’em tournament, with the buy-in priced in honor of the Hall of Fame’s founding year. This event will be open to all players. Each participating Hall of Famer will have a bounty corresponding to the year they were inducted into poker’s most exclusive club.
> The WSOP Final Table that usually played out over the course of three days has been cut down to two. WSOP Executive Director Ty Stewart, in an interview with PokerNews, explained that the decision was rooted in their new television deal with CBS Sports.
“We never truly needed three days. We did that in the past to accommodate three distinct programming windows on ESPN. CBS has a different programming format which will only require two days of play. It’s also better for the players. We don’t want to dilute the unprecedented deep stack nature of the Main Event to determine a World Champion, but we want to keep the duration manageable. We already needed to go to four starting days anticipating the field size.”
For a more detailed review of the 2021 WSOP series schedule, check out our report here.
With the series schedule now out, it understandably sent the global poker community buzzing. Even though live poker has been steadily making a comeback in the US, the fact that it has been almost 26 months since the annual WSOP series was hosted, the schedule announcement made quite the impact.
WSOP tried to fill the live-series void last year by introducing the first-ever WSOP Online Series. The series was record-breaking, but for die-hard live poker aficionados, nothing cuts it quite like the live WSOP annual series in Las Vegas. In fact, the lure of the series is such that it can even bring players out of retirement.
In our latest three-part series, ‘Road to WSOP,’ we will be taking a look at the player to watch out for at the upcoming 2021 WSOP.
Starting off the series, we take a look at the three OGs of international poker – Doyle Brunson, Daniel Negreanu, and Phil Ivey.
Doyle Brunson
On the day that the schedule for the 2021 WSOP was announced, ‘Texas Dolly’ aka Doyle Brunson tweeted that he would play a few “select tournaments.”
I’m planning on playing a few select tournaments in the WSOP this year. https://t.co/9um2zalbIR
— Doyle Brunson (@TexDolly) June 15, 2021
The 87-year-old poker legend last played a tournament at the 2018 WSOP when he entered the $10,000 No-Limit 2-7 Single Draw Championship and ended up finishing sixth in the event for $43,963. At the time, he has said that it would probably be his last WSOP event ever.
Going to the Rio to play in 2-7 lowball tournament. Probably the last one I’ll ever play.
— Doyle Brunson (@TexDolly) June 11, 2018
Since his retirement in 2018, Brunson has dedicated most of his time to his family and friends, especially his wife. He also cut back on his cash game sessions, though he still played on occasion, at least until the widespread arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 forced all of Las Vegas’s poker rooms to close for several months.
Brunson stayed in what he described as “self-quarantine” even after many Vegas poker rooms reopened.
That looks like a 1st edition. Pretty expensive.I’m in a self quarantine mode. The Corona can’t touch me, I’ve been robbed at gun point 5 times, been stabbed, beat cancer 3 times and survived 3 car wrecks. But I don’t want to infect my wife, she is too dear to me to take a chance https://t.co/mILkh0OETd
— Doyle Brunson (@TexDolly) March 12, 2020
But the relationship between a poker player and the desire to win a WSOP gold bracelet is like a moth to a flame; it’s hard to stay away.
The two-time WSOP Main Event champion and 10-time WSOP bracelet winner, Brunson, is, indubitably, a legend of the game. With over $6.17 Million in live winnings, of which $2.98 Million he has won at the WSOP, Brunson will always be a player to watch out for at the WSOP stage.
Daniel Negreanu
The GGPoker Ambassador Daniel Negreanu has been hunting for that elusive seventh gold bracelet since last year. In fact, he was so confident that he was going to win a bracelet last year that he was willing to put $1 Million on the line. Sadly, it didn’t happen. Nevertheless, Kid Poker is still excited as ever that the WSOP is finally returning to Las Vegas later this year.
“It’s my favorite time of year to grind,” Negreanu told PokerNews. “Now that time is going to be October/November, and I’m looking forward to it. See you all there!”
With $42.27 Million in total live winnings ($14.92 Million in WSOP winnings), Negreanu is currently ranked third on the All-Time Money List on Hendon Mob.
Sharing his plans for the 2021 WSOP, Negreanu confirmed, as always, he will be living in his usual RV at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino and said that the cooler temperatures in October and November, as opposed to the height of the Vegas summer, will make it much nicer.
His daily WSOP vlogs will also make a comeback as he aims to run deep in multiple tourneys while making a run for an unprecedented third WSOP Player of the Year title. He had come close to accomplishing this feat in 2019. In fact, for a while, it was believed that he had won the 2019 WSOP Player of the Year title, but it was later revealed to have been a clerical mistake. Robert Campbell, instead, won the prestigious honor in what remains to date the only time (recorded) WSOP has made a mistake in tabulating the POY standings.
Notably, this will be Negreanu’s first live World Series of Poker since signing with GGPoker in November 2019. Talking about the events he is looking forward to playing, Negreanu said, “There are so many events I’m super excited about. There are way more mixed games at high buy-ins with a $25,000 H.O.R.S.E. to start things off […] as well as the $50,000 Poker Players Championship. Then at the end for all the degen super high gamblers there’s a $250k no-limit [and a] $100k no-limit.”
We’ll be keeping an eye out for the six-time WSOP bracelet winner, and so will everyone else on his table.
Phil Ivey
The enigmatic Phil Ivey‘s last WSOP outing happened in 2019, and it did not end well. Not that he didn’t score at the series. He did have a reasonably good summer with four scores worth a cumulative $133,395. But his ongoing going beef with Atlantic City-based Borgata Hotel and Casino resulted in him losing a majority of his winnings to the latter.
Since 2014, Ivey has been embroiled in a lawsuit filed by Borgata against his partner Kelly Sun and him for allegedly cheating the casino out of $9.60 Million in the infamous edge-sorting incident. He lost the legal battle that ensued, and the casino had since been chasing Ivey to recover the $10.10 Million that he supposedly owed them. Borgata got the upper hand after being granted the right to seize Ivey’s Nevada assets in 2019.
In July 2020, news came through that Ivey and Borgata have mutually agreed to let bygones be bygones. The two parties have reportedly reached an out-of-court settlement. While the terms of the settlement haven’t been disclosed, according to confirmed reports, the settlement petition was filed in the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit on July 2, 2020.
In a much-hyped interview with poker vlogger Joey Ingram recently, Ivey shared his desire to travel to play poker, online poker, and the possibility of him participating in the 2021 WSOP.
“I want to travel and play poker […] I still enjoy playing online poker. When things come up, they’re great. But I prefer to play live and look at my opponent. Nowadays, online has gotten a lot tougher. But I’m looking to play, I’m looking to play poker on TV. I’m looking to travel and play poker. I’m looking at the World Series of Poker (WSOP). I’m not sure about a full schedule, but I’m planning on playing a few events.”
You can watch the complete interview below.
With the Borgata now off his back, the 10-time WSOP bracelet winner can finally return to the WSOP in peace and without fear of his winnings being snatched away from him again.
There are many other iconic international players to watch out for at the upcoming WSOP, but what about the Indian pros? Given the current COVID-19 situation in the country, it is still a tricky question to answer. Nevertheless, we will also be hearing from our ‘desi pros’ on their views of the 2021 WSOP schedule and whether they intend to travel to the Sin City (circumstances permitting) to be a part of the ‘World’s Biggest Poker Festival.’
Find out what they have to say in the next edition of the ‘Road to WSOP’!
Keep following PokerGuru for more updates on the 2021 WSOP!