GG WSOP Online
Poker players from all walks of life and all sizes of bankrolls have been converging on Las Vegas to compete in the annual World Series of Poker for the opportunity to win one of the most coveted prizes in poker – the bracelet. With the birth of the internet and the popularity of online poker, it was only a matter of time before poker players would get the opportunity to grind for a bracelet from the comfort of their own home.
History
The World Series of Poker have been handing out gold bracelets to their champions since 1976, minus one year where watches were given out, but bracelets were not coveted until 1989 when Phil Hellmuth took the poker world by storm and won the world championship.
The online grinders got their wish finally in 2015 when the WSOP offered a bracelet event on their online poker platform WSOP.com. Available to players in New Jersey and Nevada only, it gave players the first chance at a bracelet without having to physically be in the Rio. Anthony Spinella won the inaugural online bracelet, claiming $197k along with the bracelet.
Gradually more events were added to the summer schedule until the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic hit which converted the entire series to an online format. 85 online tournaments were scheduled across both the WSOP.com platform for US players, and on GG Poker for international players. The online championship was changed to a $5000 buy-in on the GG Poker site which set the world record for the single largest online poker tournament prize pool
With multiple sites operating the WSOP continues to offer online bracelet events across multiple platforms – the biggest set of events occurs on the New Jersey / Nevada shared site, while additional bracelet events are found on the Pennsylvania and Michigan sites. International players can compete for bracelets on the GG Poker global site and in 2023 there were a small number of events on the first WSOP branded site outside of the US in Ontario, Canada.
Format
Unlike the live bracelet events, online bracelet events have generally been one day tournaments using a standard structure on WSOP.com. The big exception was the 2020 $5000 WSOP Online World Championship that had multiple day 1 flights and lasted three days.
Most online bracelet events have been no limit Texas Hold’em although there have been some pot limit Omaha events in the past. Generally, the championship has been a $1000 buy-in, tournament bracelets have been offered online for as little as $100 as seen during the 85-bracelet series held online.
Main Event Winners WSOP Online
| Year | # Online Events | Championship Event | Entrants | Prize Pool | Winner | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 1 | Event 64 $1000 WSOP.com Online NLH | 905 | $859,750 | Anthony Spinella | $197,743 |
| 2016 | 1 | Event 6 $1000 WSOP.com Online NLH | 1247 | $1,184,650 | Clayton Maguire | $210,279 |
| 2017 | 3 | Event 71 $1000 WSOP.com Online NLH Championship | 1312 | $1,246,400 | Nipun Java | $237,688 |
| 2018 | 4 | Event 61 $1000 WSOP.com Online NLH Championship | 1635 | $1,553,250 | Ryan Tosoc | $283,778 |
| 2019 | 9 | Event 68 $1000 WSOP.com Online NLH Championship | 1750 | $1,662,500 | Nicholas Baris | $303,739 |
| 2020 | 31 | Event 31 $1000 WSOP.com Online NLH Championship | 2126 | $2,019,700 | Nahrain Tamero | $310,832 |
| 2020 | 54 | Event 46 $5000 GG Poker NLH Championship | 5802 | $27,559,500 | Stoyan Madanzhiev | $3,904,686 |
| 2021 | 11 | Event O5 $1000 WSOP.com Online NLH Championship | 854 | $768,000 | Kazuki Ikeuchi | $152,797 |
| 2021 | 33 | Event 27 $5000 GG Poker NLH Championship | 4092 | $20,000,000 | Aleksei Vandyhev | $2,543,073 |
| 2022 | 13 | Event O9 $1000 WSOP.com Online NLH Championship | 994 | $1,328,400 | Yevgeniy Minakrin | $238,315 |
| 2022 | 33 | Event $5000 GG Poker Online NLH Championship | 4983 | $23,674,000 | Simon Mattsson | $2,793,574 |
*2021 GG Poker Championship had a $20 Million guarantee that was not met
COVID-19 Impact
It will never be fully known what the online bracelet schedule would have looked like if it had not been for the worldwide pandemic that started in March 2020, however online poker players now get multiple opportunities to compete for bracelets today than was previously available. In 2018 there were only 4 online bracelet events; today there are 4 championship bracelet events spread out over the various online poker rooms, including the $5000 NLH Main Event on GG Poker’s global site.
Prestige
One of the more passionate debates involving online bracelet events has been the weight that these bracelets carry, compared to the live event ones. Many people feel that a bracelet won online does not mean the same as one won live. Some feel that even the live bracelets for events less than $1000 are not true bracelets, but even those in the higher buy-in events should not even be bracelets, but some other form of jewelry as they are not “true” WSOP bracelets. Some pros have argued with the number of bracelet events offered today, including those online, that the value of the bracelet has been diminished and needs to be altered to preserve the value of them. Others believe that a bracelet should be for winning bigger buy-in tournaments, and not events like the Big 50 that happened 2 years ago, or the $100 GG Million$ that was on the 2020 schedule. Others point out that the more bracelets offered online broadens the horizon of the brand and creates an inclusive environment.
Players in the WSOP Online
One of the most successful WSOP Online bracelet hunters is Stoyan Madanzhiev who won over $3 Million dollars on GG Poker and the 2020 WSOP Online Main Event. Alek Stasiak won 2 bracelets during that 2020 pandemic series on GG Poker, and many other well-known pros have added to their trophy case while playing online bracelet events like David Peters, Chris Moorman, Justin Saliba, Erik Seidel, Jeremy Ausmus, and Cherish Andrews. Espen Jorstad made the final table of the 2021 $5k GG Poker Championship one year before winning the live main event in Las Vegas.
Streaming
While some of the other online poker operators invest heavily into streaming their products when large series are played, the WSOP has not followed suit with the online bracelet events. New Jersey and Nevada final tables have been broadcasted live on Twitch, generally commentated by Jeff Platt but due to the number of events occurring online at the same time in different states, as well as the live series in Las Vegas, the emphasis is usually on the production of the in-person events. Individual streamers who make the final table of events might stream from their own account, but access to watching the final tables of these online bracelet events is not always readily available.
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