ShareUnibet has decided to remain cautious for the rest of the year and moved all of their popular Unibet Open events to their online platform. The site that is all about keeping poker fun is taking no chances with the welfare of players. Last year they were also the first major organiser to announce the same move.
Unibet brand ambassador David Lappin said:
“We were the first to announce the switch to online last year and we’ve taken similar fast, decisive action this year,”
“I’ll admit that I was holding out hope that a December event could have been on the cards so like many of our players, I am disappointed. Ultimately though, I’m really proud of how we have put player safety above everything else,”
Nataly Sopacuaperu, Unibet’s Head of Events, told how uncertainty over travel restrictions and the success of the move to online events last year made it a sensible precaution to stick to the same plan.
While this news is disappointing for those who are Unibet fans and were raring to go, it is starting to look like life will return to something approaching normal later this year. Live poker will start up again to some degree, although we may have to abide by some semi-awkward rules for a while to get things up and running again.
Deepstack Open Coming Soon
In fact, the Unibet Deepstacks Open will be played in Malta at the Portomaso Casino on March 11-14. The Mediterranean island ended their only lockdown in May 2020, and so is a perfect place to see how everything goes for such an event.The Maltese casinos have been open since June 2020 without any hint of a problem with increased COVID-19 infections. Tables are restricted to only five players and one dealer, and masks will be mandatory.
Event organiser Alex Henry spoke to VegasSlotsOnline News and said:
“The staff have been implementing these health and safety measures for seven months. They understand what needs to be done to create a safe environment,”
“Additionally, I will be insisting on pre-registration in the casino to avoid queues and I will be personally monitoring the sanitizing of the playing area, the tables, the chips, the cards, everything before and after play each day.”
Henry added that he has been organising Deepstack Open events in Malta for more than a decade and is happy that the “Portomaso Casino has set up a secure covid proof process, so all players can feel safe at the table.”
The poker community will be watching this event extremely closely. What happens in Malta in just over a week’s time could have a bearing on what the blueprint for live poker is for the rest of 2021. Fingers crossed everyone.
WPT Returns to Las Vegas
It is not just Europe that will see the return of a major poker festival, because the World Poker Tour is about to land in Las Vegas once again. This marks an important step in the road to recovery for the live poker scene. The WPT is an important brand for poker and their titles carry so much prestige that we will see big names in almost all of their major tournaments.First up will be a $5,000 buy-in Main Event at the Venetian Casino with a $1.5 million guarantee. There hasn’t been a WPT Main Event in Las Vegas since the 2019 WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic almost 15 months ago. Alex Foxen won that record-breaking event for $1.694 million, which had the biggest prize pool ever for a $10,000 buy-in WPT tournament.
Tommy LaRosa, tournament director for The Venetian Poker Room, said:
“We are excited for the return of the World Poker Tour to The Venetian. We strive to provide our players with as many options as possible and have been working throughout the last year to deliver the great poker experience our players have come to expect, but in a Venetian Clean way.”
With March already underway we must all hope that this event goes well. The WSOP organisers will be watching closely to assess how much of a chance there is for a full on live series in the summer. The vaccine program in the US is going extremely well, but there is still a long road ahead. Could the most important series in poker return to its spiritual home this year? We certainly hope so.
