Doesn’t seem right. I thought that was indeed the 2020 WSOP played. He got a bracelet. He has a good case that they are damaging his future earning potential. Maybe everyone has a case that they entered that tournament believing that was the WSOP ME.

FF to 3:28:20 for some great hands from previous WSOP Main Events. The Matusow hand was epic.

Negreanu doing what Negreanu does best.

Neither the 5k nor the 10k winner deserves a banner in the Amazon room next to the greats like Jaime Gold, Qui Nguyen, and Jerry Yang.

They deserve an online banner . . . but certainly not one in the Amazon room.

Everyone knows the wsop main event is the 10k freezeout. 5k online "main event" in the year of covid derailment is not the real main event. This thread seems like a stupid attempt to troll DNEGS.

The Main Event is whatever the WSOP says it is. There's no rule that says it has to be a certain buyin amount.

The WSOP has announced that Stoyan Madanzhiev won the 2020 WSOP Main Event. That's just a fact. No amount of mental gymnastics can change that.

Hard to argue against this here. I assumed as well that was the WSOP main.

The announcing duo unequivocally referred to it as the WSOP ME.

Tough spot but I guess the WSOP gets to do whatever they want.

i agree that the 1st ME (the $5K) was presented as the "real main event" and adding another main event to the schedule is a bot odd. nevertheless, i've the feeling that it won't matter, b/c none of the winners will be remembered as the "real" main event champion anyway.

the $10K Main Event in Vegas is too fenced to be prestigious and the $5K was "just online" ... so long story short, since there will be plenty of asterisks on those wins, i think this whole thing isn't really important.

Tweet by Poker Industry PRO editor Nick Jones ('Hood' on 2+2).

So I think this is the main point of contention here.

- Did they call it the 51st Annual World Series of poker?
- Was it ever sold as an official continuation/replacement of the series that plays in the rio every year?

To my knowledge, beyond the one line in that certificate in the photo shared by Stoyan, this is not used anywhere else? This could be an error on the certificate and nothing else.

This is not a trivial error, and should be discussed! but if this is the only case of the term "51st annual world series of poker", then the discussion changes quite dramatically from "stripped of his title" to "unfortunate error." Because I don't believe anyone ahead of the event was sold on this being the "51st series."

I will say, as an editor covering the GG WSOP in a lot of detail, I personally was never given the impression that this was an "official continuation fo the series that plays in the rio" and never communicated it as such. From all the PR I received, it was always billed as as separate "WSOP Online" with its own Main Event (that was structured very differently to the usual WSOPME)

In fact, WSOP stated on more than one occasion that the 51st WSOP was postponed, not canceled nor replaced, and that they hoped to run it in the fall, TBD with the coronavirus, etc. And now we're seeing their plan for that - a hybrid event in the US, and an online event in ROW.

Now, players may have thought they were playing in the 51st Annual WSOP, I can see why there would be that confusion. But I don't think there was any communication errors from GG/WSOP on this (open to correction on this though, for sure!). Maybe other media outlets muddled things a bit? As I replied to you on Twitter, I can find no other reference to "51st" in any of the comms that I received.

Fwiw, I have zero bones in this, I'm very happy to be shown examples of me being wrong. I'm really just interested to see, beyond this (very unfortunate) single line on that certificate, whether there was any official communication in the build-up to the event that sold it as (a) 51st series, (b) extension of the live RIO series.

I guess just add it to the list of GGpoker foopass?



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On the plus side, people will probably be able to put an asterisked 2nd main event champion entry in the 2020 column on the wikipedia page that lists all the WSOP Main Event champions by year, with a strong enough asterisk-claim that it probably won't get removed by the wikipedia editors.

And, the wiki page is probably the main thing most people use to look up who the main event winners have been. So, assuming that happens, he'll get a decent amount of clout, albeit in asterisked format, from that. And his own fine-print footnote at the bottom of the chart that explains what the 2020 asterisk and double-listing thing is.

So (maybe) there's that, at least.

I agree with this take.

IMO, if players and the WSOP/collaborators want to have a hybrid 2020 Main Event, then they're the ones who take responsibility. The WSOP through its operator/venue licensing arrangements and compliance with health protocols; the players through their real money buy-in and compliance with the rules/Terms of Service/health protocols.

The "51st annual..." wording maybe didn't take into account that the brand would indeed aggressively pursue the possibility of a "live" or "hybrid" 2020 Main Event. Unfortunate, but not really a big deal aside from how "public record" or "exclusive coverage" sites like Wiki and PokerNews will communicate/relay the particulars once the time comes. I don't think that will be much of a big deal either, just a matter of semantics.

Obviously if a player feels the buy-in is not justified for whatever reason, then that player should not enter.

And likewise if the WSOP/regulators/authorities arrive at a point in which they no longer believe that the "live" final tables are feasible, then they should react accordingly, however they see fit using the expertise/resources at their disposal.

Again just my opinion... this really isn't an issue that weighs heavily on the proverbial "public grievance" scale like problems with player cashouts would. Or even as heavily as a former exec. deciding it's time to publicly take some hide out of players he doesn't like while the brand uses those players' personal likenesses for marketing purposes might.

There’s only one way to settle this sort of thing...

We cut the bracelet in half

If the public backlash regarding this whole fiasco gets bad enough, maybe they could have Stoyan play the winner of the 10K Main Event in a hu match, with 1 mil of freeroll style prizepool created for the match ($0 entry for each of the two players, but the winner of it wins a mil), and have them play live, in person against each other, in a hu sng type of format, but deep with a long structure, like 10,000 starting chips and blinds start at 10/20 and the blinds double every 90 minutes.

And have the hu match be a big televised event, with the tv commentators and fancy lights and cash pile on the table and the live audience and all that, and the winner gets crowned as the first "Main Event Superchampion" ever, or something like that.

given how much luck there is involved in winning a main event like this I don't think comparing this title with the title of an actual athlete is fair at all hence why the "who cares" comments

I'm a bit more in the who cares camp I guess

daniel is a cornucopia of renegging. hope amanda got the good pre nup

Can the WSOP certify my weekly $20 homegame as a main event too?

If you paid them enough money, they would certainly do that.

FWIW, they could just call the new thing the 52nd WSOP. Nothing in the rules say they can't have more than one in any given year, especially if they take out the term "annual" for this one. MLB hosted two All Star Games in one season from 59 to 62.

This is indirectly good for the future of poker. Now it's no longer a rigid process to determine the 'world champion'. The flexibility opens the door for my idea of a 128-hu tournament down to an 8-person final table. Having guys like DN and Hellmuth on a selection show would be phenomenal.

She got the best of Dutch perhaps. No way she has stopped (at the finish line) of getting the best of prominent players.

To be fair, I heard Negreanu make the point multiple times that the 5K online reentry wasn't really a replacement for the main event. In fact, I believe he expressed dislike for calling it that (I may be remembering that incorrectly, though).

What we see signed here is a certificate awarding someone a bracelet with the name of the event listed at the top. I'm curious if all bracelet events received one of these? If so, this certificate bears no special significance IMO.

I'm in full agreement that the WSOP is ****ing up here, it just seems the DN hate on this one is reaching.

They should just have 2 main event champions for 2020. It's a weird ****ing year, everybody is doing their best.

It's not like having more than 2 in 1 calendar year due to exceptional circumstances somehow invalidates the entire thing, just like changing the buyin doesn't invalidate it.

The first main event champion was decided by a vote. A bunch of those tournaments had like 15 people in them. One year they ran out of space and a bunch of people didn't get to play. Some years they were 10 handed, then 9 handed, eventually I am sure they will be 8 handed, and I am sure the buyin will raise from 10k.

And please stop referring to it as a "money grab." of course it's a money grab, they are a company, that's their job.

They provide a product which is the prestige and cachet of a WSOP bracelet. If they dilute that prestige too much in search of short term profits, then they will lose money in the long run because people will stop caring, and it will be a bummer, but I don't think that trying to have an in-person FT ruins it.

Part of the "WSOP MAIN EVENT EXPERIENCE" nowadays is having to make huge decisions with the title and glory on the line and bright lights shining down on you and millions of people watching on television. That experience helps ELEVATE the prestige on specialness of the bracelet. They're trying to preserve that element which I think is sensible, and they weren't sure if they were going to be able to do this several months ago, so they are trying their best.


They should just recognize 2 champions this year and everybody can move on with their lives. It's not like players will feel that the December champion is cheapened or invalidated if they also recognize Stoyan, and I am sure Stoyan will not be upset if another championsi recognized as long as he gets his due as well. Weird year man, you just gotta roll with it

A banner at the Rio of a bloke sat behind a monitor would look silly

This is the optimal solution. You brought up very valid points. I totally forgot that they actually voted on the winner.

Every single sport/event has had to make adjustments this year if they wanted to play.

Daniel Negreanu has zero to do with this. Has even made a final table WSOP?