Do you think the winner of the GGPoker WSOP Main Event is the official reigning World Champion or do you think it is still Hossein Ensan?
An interesting poll was tweeted last week by Barny Boatman about whether the winner of the GGPoker WSOP Main Event is officially our 2020 World Champion or is 2019 champion Hossein Ensan still the reigning champion? Most people seemed to think no, but his sample is of course going to have biases built in.
A month from now who will you consider to be the reigning WSOP main event champion?
Hossein Ensan, or whoever’s account the GG event is won with?
— Barny Boatman (@barnyboatman) August 30, 2020
The success of the WSOP series at GGPoker and in particular this record-breaking online tournament seems to suggest otherwise. Many may turn their nose up at online bracelets but poker players have gone out of their way to play for them. Clearly we think they count as bracelets and clearly we think this event qualifies as some sort of Main Event.
In many ways poker is a lot better equipped than most other pursuits to move its Main Event online, given that by now we are all both live and online poker players to some degree. You only had to look at how weird and different the Democratic and Republican National Conventions looked in the US, or the fake crowds at football matches, to see how odd some things have become this year.
The champ….with an asterisk
It is quite funny to see some of the comical screen names in the final 38 of the Main Event, but the implementation of real name tables (and in this case, final tables) has made the game feel a little more ‘real’. Plus the Twitch coverage of the PokerStars, WPT and WSOP online events really has adapted well to make it look as much of an ‘event’ as online poker can be.
For all the things that irk me about the poker world- something feels incredibly welcoming about seeing toilet_water, BeatMeater and smbdySUCKme duke it out to see who will be champion of our industry
— Mike McDonald (@MikeMcDonald89) August 31, 2020
In a strange way the biggest disqualifier for me is nothing to do with the online nature of the event or the fact that some parts of the player pool are unable to play, it is the fact the event is a re-entry. Late reg and re-entries are two of the most contentious issues in tournament poker these days and while I frequently change my view on the best way to tackle them, there does seem a consensus that the ‘Main Event’ should be a freezeout. It has always had an ‘only one shot a year’ feel to it and arguably is the most level playing field between pros and amateurs in that respect.
I think whoever wins the online Main Event is the 2020 World Champion and I suspect most poker players will agree, begrudgingly.
The winner will always have an asterisk next to their name though, just in the same way that any sporting achievement during the global lockdown will. It was either have an online Main Event or no Main Event. 2020 has been a year of making do with less than we are used to and poker is no different.
What do you think? Let us know in the comments:
source https://casinonewsblogger.com/is-this-weekends-main-event-winner-the-real-world-champion/
No comments:
Post a Comment