World Series Of Poker Triples Down – 2017 Schedule Features Three Online Bracelet Events

Three separate WSOP online events

The WSOP released its full schedule on Wednesday, with 74 total bracelet events for the poker tournament festival that starts in May and wraps up with the main event in July.

Included in those 74 events are three different online tournaments that will award bracelets at WSOP NV:

• Event No. 8: $333 WSOP.com Online No-Limit Hold’em ($333,333 guaranteed)
• Event No. 61: $3,333 WSOP.com Online No-Limit Hold’em High Roller
• Event No. 71: $1,000 WSOP.com ONLINE No-Limit Hold’em Championship

To play in the events, you have to be physically located in Nevada and have an account at WSOP.com.

This is the first time there will be more than one online tournament at the WSOP. There have been single online tournaments in both 2015 and 2016.

Satellites for both live and online tournaments begin Feb. 1. Registration begins in March.

WSOP online event historically, and what’s new for 2017

The first online WSOP event to award a bracelet came in 2015. That was a $1,000 buy-in tournament with just over 900 entrants. Its prize pool of nearly $860,000 was the largest in the history of regulated US online poker.

The second edition of the online bracelet event made incremental changes. For Year No. 2, it became a reentry event and the structure was slowed down. Plans to have the entire tournament were scrapped, and a final table that played out live occurred again.

The 2016 online event was even bigger, with a prize pool of more than $1.1 million.

This year, the schedule indicates that all three tournaments will play out entirely online, with no live component. All three tournaments feature unlimited reentry.

The WSOP is banking on the idea that the success of the events in 2015 and 2016 will translate into setting the stage for tripling the number of online events.

Live WSOP event drives traffic to online

The introduction of three distinct price points — and with events spread out throughout the course of the WSOP — should continue to have a positive impact for WSOP.com.

Online poker usually suffers from a seasonal downturn in the summer months. But the presence of more poker players in Vegas for the WSOP usually drives more traffic to both online cash games and tournaments. The addition of three bracelet events could increase interest in the online product throughout the series.

Regardless, the WSOP remains committed to expanding its online presence in coordination with the biggest live tournament festival in the world.