The World Poker Tour extended its collaboration with 888 Poker for 2021’s last major online poker series- the WPTDeepStacks London online series. The festival featured 28 events and offered participants more than $3 million in guaranteed prize pools. The WPTDeepStacks online series consisted of 28 events promising participants an excess of $3 million in guaranteed prize pools.
The action was scheduled to begin on November 28th with the opening $525 buy-in event, which offered players a $200k guarantee. Buy-ins for this tournament ranged from $55 for the Mini Main Event and climbed to $52000 for the Super High Roller event. The Satellites, on the other hand, all started at an affordable $0.01.
Throughout the first 10 events, the series saw more than 5,313 individuals sign up to compete, which resulted in the $824,110 prize money that was awarded. Winners in the 10 events came from all over the world from countries like Ireland, Germany, Russia, Belarus, Romania, Finland, and Malta.
The highlight of the event was the WPTDS Main Event, which had a buy-in of $1,050. Boasting 10 starting flights, participants enjoyed the chance to battle it out for the guaranteed prize pool of $1 million. The tournament was open to punters all over the globe, many of whom were eager to walk away with the WPTDeepStacks title.
Fans that were watching from all corners of the world were able to watch the action online. The final tables, which consisted of the $525 PKO (Event #9), the $2,100 High Roller (Event #11), the $888 Crazy 8 (Event #17), as well as the $200k Big Shot (Event #25), were also live-streamed. The final event, the highlight of the entire tournament, dubbed the WPTDeepStacks Main Event final table took place on December 21st.
What was so great about this tournament is that it supplied poker players with all budgets a chance to take part in a well-organized tournament that promised thousands in cash prizes for the winners, who took part in the comfort of their homes. With a higher number of people opting to play poker online in the last 2 years thanks to the pandemic, the tournament offered a wonderful opportunity for poker lovers to end 2021 with a bang.
The end-year tournament marks the second time in 2021 that 888Poker has successfully hosted a World Poker Tour event. The last event that the 2 collaborated on drew 1087 entries that consequently created a final prize pool of $1,087,000. Players took part in 10 starting flights to vie for their share of the $1 million guaranteed prizes.
Participating in the field for several events were well-known 888Poker brand ambassadors including Sofia Lovgren, Dominik Nitsche, Vivian Saliba, as well as Sam Abernathy. Popular WPT talents that called the tournament include Tony Dunst, Matt Savage, and 888’s Nick Wealthall and David Tuchman.
The first WPTDeepStacks event concluded in April 2021 with the tournament paying out $2.2 million in prize money. The earlier series took place concurrently on 888’s international markets, as well as on its combined Spain and Portugal network alongside the segregated online poker room in Italy. The online poker series played out over 7 days, featuring 19 events $2 million in guarantees that were easily exceeded.
In total, the first DeepStacks series attracted more than 8,000 entries. The Main Event, which attracted 973 participants was rebought 114 times, which helped to bring up the final prize pool to $1,087,000. The second edition of the tournament however was only available to the global market while the European counterparts hosted various regional online tours.
What we cover
The 888 partnership with WSOP
At the start of last year, 888 holdings entered into a multi-year extension with Caesars Interactive Entertainment. The 2 already had an existing partnership in the US market with the partnership helping to cement 888 as the leading online poker provider in the country.
888 has been supplying WSOP in Nevada and New Jersey with the software it needs to operate its own online poker room. 888 also provides the same software to operators in 3 racinos situated in Delaware. All 6 online poker rooms pool liquidity on one network, which makes this the only multi-state online poker network in the country.
As part of the continued partnership, 888 will keep deploying its poker 8 desktop and mobile offering for WSOP brands in the country. 888 will also keep supplying their online casino solutions to Caesars Interactive brands. With these partnerships and relationships, 888 has been able to gain a presence in newly legalized states, which has been an important aspect of 888’s expansion in the various states.
Upcoming tournaments in 2022
888 plans to kick off this new year with a bang thanks to the new XL Winter series which promises to offer more than $1.5M in guarantees. The XL Winter Series is scheduled to run between 16th January to the end of the month and will be packed with various events that load up to the main event.
Each day in the series will be characterized by affordable tournament buy-ins, as well as massive prize pools. The one to watch will be the $500,000 GTD Main Event with a $250 buy-in, which will be held on the last day of the tournament. The Main Event table will be streamed live. Some of the tournaments that people have to look forward to include:
- The $100,000 Opening Event (XL Winter #1)
- The $200, 000 Tune-Up (XL Winter #22)
- The $15,000 Mini DeepStack (XL Winter #38)
- The $50,000 Mini Main Event (XL Winter #44)
- The $30,000 6-Max (XL Winter #19)
- The $25,000 8-Max (XL Winter #25)
- $40,000 PKO 6-Max (XL Winter #34) and so much more.
As per reports from 888, the XL Winter Series is expected to have an unparalleled lineup of commentators that include but are not limited to Nick Wealthall and David Tuchman. All the events will be streamed from 888’s Twitch channel. The brand has also announced that it will be giving away freeroll and giveaway action during the live streams.
