ShareDaniel Negreanu is taking some flak after it was announced that the “real” WSOP Main Event will take place in December 2020. This means that no matter what everybody thought before, Stoyan Madanzhiev is not the 2020 World Series of Poker Main Event champion.
Stitched Up
Stoyan Madanzhiev was presented with an official certificate, signed by Negreanu, that said,“Congratulations on winning WSOP Event #77 $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em Main Event of the 51st Annual World Series of Poker hosted by GGPoker. “
This sounds quite definitive, but Negreanu is now saying that this event was most certainly not the “real” tournament because there was always hope things would have returned to normal by Christmas.
Nick Jones, editor at Poker Industry Pro, pointed out,
“Hmm. I see the confusion, but WSOP always said that the "proper" series was postponed, not canceled (nor replaced with an online-only version); that they hoped to run the series in the fall.”
More of the Same
What makes a mockery of this situation is that the December tournament will be more of the same, only the buy-in will be $10,000 with no rebuys. Exactly as it should be. Only now we are going to have a lot of arguing over who really deserves to be called the champion.WSOP Executive Director Ty Stewart said,
“There must be a World Champion in 2020. Poker’s history is too important. It’s a unique format for the Main Event, but this is a unique year. We want to keep players’ health and safety top of mind and still deliver a great televised showcase for the game we love.”
Canadian high stakes crusher Sam Greenwood was quick to state his own opinion.
He then proceeded to rip into the proposed format.
“Making people play an online tournament where the FT might take place somewhere people aren't allowed to travel instead of just playing the tourney out online is stupid.”
As during the summer both WSOP.com and GGPoker will be hosting play. Both platforms will be playing down to final tables that will take place at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas on Monday, December 28th for US-based players. GGPoker finalists will play it out at King’s Casino, Rozvadov, Czech Republic on Tuesday, December 15th.
The winners of both final tables will then meet up for a final heads-up clash on Wednesday December 30th where the winner of that battle will be crowned the official WSOP Main Event champion for 2020.
Stoyan Madanzhiev chimed in with,
“Lol in some countries it is just not possible to take visa for the USA in a month. And some are just locked down.”
