Last year, the World Series of Poker cancelled the biggest live poker festival in the world late. In fact, if you’re judging on the specifics, it was very late. Some players had booked months in Las Vegas before finding out in May that the entire WSOP was cancelled. From the fabled Main Event to the Colossus, it was in the bin.  

Or rather, it wasn’t, because the WSOP Online Series came along, promising to be the efinitive way to search for World Series bracelet winners during a global pandemic. If the poker mountain couldn’t be travelled to by the MMT poker player, then the mountain would come into players hoes via the internet. GGPoker and WSOP.com welcomed thousands of players to their online lobbies. Guarantees were met, winners received their bracelets via FedEx, some winners bounced off car park WiFi. It was a hoot.  

Then the World Series reappeared like a reanimated zombie at the close of the year. That summer event online wasn’t the World Series of Poker Main Event, this hybrid version was instead, they told players. Cue confusion, a lower top prize than the $5,000 single re-entry Main Event and an angry Bulgarian in Stoyan Madanzhiev.  

Well, after the turn-of-the-year win was sealed by Argentina’s Damian Salas for a total prize of $2.5 million (Madanzhiev won $3.9m back in the summer and he got a certificate too), the World Series has been distinctly quiet on whether or when the World Series of Poker Main Event and thus the festival itself will be back.