Natural8 to Offer 54 of 85 Wsop 2020 Gold Bracelet Events
Earlier this month, the World Series of Poker announced a change in tactics for the 2020 WSOP. It planned to offer 85 tournaments online, all offering WSOP gold bracelets.
This week, the GGPoker Network revealed the list of events – 54 of 85 – that it will host on its online poker platform. That means Natural8 will be the closest skin on the network to offer the tournaments for people in the Asia-Pacific region. While Natural8 doesn’t accept players located in Australia, it does offer services to other countries, like New Zealand, in the region.
A Unique Year for WSOP
The coronavirus pandemic changed the course of nearly everything in 2020. It certainly derailed poker players when casinos around the world closed to prevent the virus spread.
Australia did relatively well with the containment of its virus cases, closing down in mid-March and then reopening very slowly in June and soon into July. Other parts of the world did not do as well, the United States being the most glaring example. Las Vegas was one of the cities to open its casinos in June, and Sin City is now seeing a spike in positive cases of Covid-19.
The direction of the disease curve is tough to predict going forward, but the World Series of Poker knew two things for sure when it had to face the 2020 WSOP. First, poker tournaments would not be safe for many, many months, no matter how low the numbers. Second, international flights would not be encouraged for a long time, either.
The WSOP’s announcement in April to postpone the 2020 summer series was not altogether unexpected, though it was disappointing for poker players around the world, nonetheless.
A few days into June, WSOP officials made another announcement. The WSOP 2020 Online was the answer to this year’s poker tournament dilemma. The entire series of 85 tournaments will be online.
US Players First
When the series gets underway on July 1, it will be happening on WSOP.com, a poker site available only to players in two American states – Nevada and New Jersey. Players only need to be located within the borders of those states and detected by geolocation technology to play. Those from anywhere in the world would be welcome to play…if there were international flights and no coronavirus concerns.
Even so, the US players will see one tournament per day from July 1-31.
We posted that schedule two weeks ago.
Rest of the World Up Next
That leaves 54 tournaments for the rest of the world, specifically anyone in countries approved by the GGPoker Network.
In the Asia-Pacific region, it seems that the Natural8 skin restricts players from Australia, the Philippines, and Taiwan in the Asia-Pacific region. Places like Cambodia, Vietnam, and New Zealand are not restricted. There may be some location validation issues with players traveling from other countries to play, however, so players should contact Natural8 before doing so.
The GGPoker Network tournaments will begin on July 19 and run through September 6. Most of the starting times are set to be convenient for players in EST or GMT – the Americas and Europe – but there are a handful of events designated for the Asian time zone.
Some information remains unknown, such as the starting flights for multi-day tournaments, numbers of reentries, and structures. That information is likely to emerge in the next week or so.
This is the GGPoker schedule, with tournaments in the Asian time zone highlighted.
- July 19: $100 NLHE Opener (final day, 1 reentry/flight, $2M GTD)
- July 19: $1,111 NLHE Covid Relief by Caesars Cares
- July 19: $525 NLHE Super Turbo Bounty 6-Handed
- July 21: $5K PLO Championship
- July 22: $1,500 NLHE Fifty Stack
- July 23: $1,050 PLO Bounty
- July 25: $600 NLHE Monster Stack 6-Handed (Asia time zone)
- July 26: $1,500 NLHE (Asia time zone)
- July 26: $2,500 PLO
- July 26: $400 NLHE Colossus (2nd of 3 days, 1 reentry/flight, $3M GTD)
- July 26: $400 PLOSSUS (2nd day of 3 days, 1 reentry/flight, $1M GTD)
- July 28: $10K NLHE Short Deck Championship
- July 29: $2,500 NLHE 6-Handed
- July 30: $840 NLHE Bounty
- August 1: $500 NLHE Deepstack (Asia time zone)
- August 2: $1K NLHE Short Deck (Asia time zone)
- August 2: $1,500 NLHE Millionaire Maker (2nd of 3 days, 1 reentry/flight, $5M GTD)
- August 2: $500 NLHE Turbo Deepstack
- August 4: $2,100 NLHE Bounty Championship
- August 5: $400 PLO
- August 6: $1K NLHE
- August 8: $800 PLO Double Stack (Asia time zone)
- August 9: HK$8K NLHE Asia Championship (final day, 1 reentry/flight, HK$8M GTD)
- August 9: $150 NLHE GGMasters WSOP Edition (freezeout)
- August 9: $10K NLHE Heads-Up Championship (freezeout, no late reg, 128-player cap)
- August 11: $5K NLHE 6-Handed Championship
- August 12: $2,500 NLHE Double Stack
- August 13: $525 NLHE Bounty 6-Handed
- August 15: $300 NLHE Monster Stack 6-Handed (Asia time zone)
- August 16: $1,500 PLO
- August 16: $500 NLHE Mini Main Event (final day, 1 reentry/flight, $5M GTD)
- August 16: $840 NLHE Super Turbo Bounty
- August 18: $600 NLHE Deepstack Championship
- August 19: $800 PLO
- August 20: $500 LHE
- August 22: $500 NLHE Deepstack (Asia time zone)
- August 23: $1,500 NLHE Marathon (Asia time zone)
- August 23: $25K NLHE Poker Players Championship ($10M GTD)
- August 23: $50 NLHE Big 50 (final day, 1 reentry/flight, $1M GTD)
- August 25: $1,500 LHE Championship
- August 26: $1K NLHE 6-Handed
- August 27: $1,500 PLO
- August 29: $300 NLHE Double Stack (Asia time zone)
- August 30: $400 NLHE Forty Stack
- August 30: $5K NLHE Main Event (2nd of 3 days, freezeout flights, $25M GTD)
- August 30: $1K NLHE Turbo 6-Handed
- September 1: People’s Choice – Most popular
- September 2: People’s Choice – Pros vote
- September 3: People’s Choice – Spin the wheel
- September 5: People’s Choice – Most popular
- September 5: $1,050 NLHE Beat the Pros Bounty
- September 6: $10K NLHE WSOP Super Millions ($5M GTD)
- September 6: $100 NLHE WSOP Millions (final day, 1 reentry/flight, $2M GTD)
- September 6: $500 NLHE Closer
For more information about the series leaderboard, tournament start times, and Natural8 promotions, check the Natural8 website.
