By Lisa Yiasemides
The second WPT Online Series is arriving this week, with two and a half weeks of top-notch poker on the schedule running from Friday, May 14 until Tuesday, June 2.
The first series was a resounding success in Season 18 and nothing less is expected for this Season… quite the opposite in fact, with even more events to choose from on partypoker.com for 2021. The event schedule is bursting at the seams with a huge variety of buy-ins and structures and ensuring there really is something for everyone.
To paint a picture of what fans of the game can expect – in 2020, a total of 111,170 entries were recorded with $52,877,550 awarded in prizes across 94 events! This year, there are over 130 tournaments to choose from, with buy-ins ranging from $5.50 to $25,500. So, no matter your bankroll, it will be easy to find a game (or several) that suits your budget.
There are three headline events on offer: the WPT Online Series Main Event; the WPT500 Online; and the WPT500 Knockout Online Series. Each of these feature mouth-watering guarantees and come with a choice of three buy-ins with a Main, a Mini, and a Micro tournament for each one.
WPT Online Series Main Event
Event #20 Main Event will kick off at 19:05 (BST) on Sunday, May 23 with Day 1a, and Day 1b taking place a week later on Sunday 30 May. The four-day competition will culminate with the final table on Wednesday, June 2 and anyone who has made it this far in the $3,200 event, will be guaranteed to bank themselves a significant share of the $3,000,000 prize pool.
Last year, Christian Jeppsson took down the title and saw his name etched on the iconic Mike Sexton WPT Champions Cup. The Swede walked away $923,785 better off after making a heads-up deal with Viktor Ustimov who took $865,542 for placing runner up.
If you would like to follow in Jeppsson’s footsteps and are looking for a more affordable route to the Championship event, why not try to qualify on partypoker.com? Satellites are already running, with 15 seats guaranteed each Sunday in the lead-up to the event. For those who want to try spinning up to a Main Event ticket, there are phased tournaments running daily and cost as little as $3.30. For the most seasoned bargain hunters out there, you can try to win your way into the event for $0.01 via one of the centroll qualifiers that also take place daily.
Mini Main Event Online
The Mini Main Event is a huge affair in its own right. The $530 competition will run over four days too, and entrants will be playing for a share of the $500,000 guaranteed prizepool. The tournament gets out of the starting blocks a week earlier than its big brother, with Day 1a at 19:05 this Sunday, May 15.
Once again, it is possible for players to climb the satellite tree and win their way into the half-a-million-dollar event for as little as one cent. Alternatively, the phased qualifiers start from just $0.55, with both options taking place daily.
Finally, the Mini Main has Mega Sats running on the Saturday and Sunday before each Day 1. The buy-in for these is $55 and there are 50 tickets guaranteed in each one!
WPT500 Knockout Online
The second and third feature tournaments are the WPT500 Online Series and the WPT500 Knockout Online Series. The latter will begin first, offering knockout fans just a one-week wait with Day 1a scheduled for Monday, May 17 at 20:05. The $530 event has a cool $1,000,000 guarantee and there are eight opportunities for players to give it a go, with at least one starting flight each day until Day 1H on Sunday, May 23. Day 2 of the three-day event is on Monday, May 24, and the final table will take place on Tuesday, May 25.
The WPT500 Knockout will be joined by the mini and micro editions of the event – the $55 Super50 Knockout ($400K GTD), and the $5.50 Super5 Knockout ($50K GTD). Their schedules mirror that of the WPT500 Knockout Main Event.
WPT500 Online
The last of the three headline events to get off the mark is the WPT500. Last year, Fabio Sperling took the title and $281,126 in prize money for his efforts, setting the standard for future incarnations with the 2020 event the first time the WPT500 was challenged for on the virtual felt.
This year, the action in the $530 event will begin at 20:05 on Monday, May 24. The format and the starting dates are the only ways this tournament differs from the WPT500 Knockout. The guarantee is also set at $1,000,000, and there will be at least one Day 1 flight taking place until Day 1h on Sunday, May 30. That means Day 2 is on Monday, May 31 and the final table will wraps things up on Tuesday, June 1.
There are two smaller buy-in tournaments to choose from too, with the $55 Super50 ($300K GTD) and $5.50 Super5 ($50K GTD) running at the same time as the WPT500 Main Event.
Pro Hunt
WPT and partypoker have put together an exciting new event that will make sure the entire festival goes off with a bang.
The WPT Pro Hunt begins at 19:05 on Friday, May 14. Entrants in the event can win satellite tickets to the WPT Main Event by eliminating partypoker pros including Patrick Leonard, Mikita Bodyakovskiy, Kristen Bicknell, and Jaime Staples, as well as a number of other high profile names still to be confirmed. The winner of the event will also earn a $3,200 WPT Main Event seat and a trophy.
The Pro Hunt has a buy-in of $33, features an 8-max knockout structure, and has a $30,000 guarantee. This is a one-day event.
The Opener
Starting at the same time as the Pro Hunt, is the two-day Opener. With three buy-ins to choose from, players can take part in one, two, or all of the $1,050 Main ($500K GTD), $109 Mini ($250K GTD), or $11 Micro Opener ($50K GTD) events.
Each of these events will take two days to play out, and will all have a 6-Max PKO structure.
This is just a handful of highlights that the series will offer. You can check back here on Friday when details of all the weekend’s tournaments will be posted. If that feels too long to wait, why not head to partypoker.com for more information.