It seems some poker players in Pennsylvania are a bit tilted that a $3,200 tournament from the WSOP online platform was postponed minutes before it was scheduled to be held. On Tuesday, the WSOP, which launched in Pennsylvania in mid-July, announced that its high roller tournament would be pushed back due to “technical difficulties.”
Around 20 players were registered for the tournament, which didn’t have a guaranteed prize pool. It was moved back to Tuesday, Aug. 17, at 5:30 p.m. EST. It’s unclear why the WSOP chose that date instead of running the event as soon as the issue was resolved, but it appears designed to maintain the schedule of having one bracelet event per day until the series’ conclusion.
ANNOUNCEMENT PA: Tonight’s $3,200 High Roller Online Bracelet Event has been canceled due to technical difficulties. This tournament has been rescheduled for next Tuesday, August 17 at 5:30pm ET.
PA: https://t.co/V7QE3KrjSa pic.twitter.com/TsTtwWujn6— WSOP (@WSOP) August 10, 2021
Apparently, the undisclosed back-end issues impacted other ongoing tournaments at the time, as poker player Ryan Hagerty stated. Hagerty has won more than $500,000 in WSOP-branded events.
@WSOPcom PA just cancelled the 3200 10 min before the tournament starts, and cancelled my 100r satty with 4 left while I was 2/4 when 1st gets a seat and second gets 1k and just awards me second place money and gave 3rd and 4th zero?? This is insane @Kevmath
— Ryan Hagerty (@Hags_Ryan) August 10, 2021
Fortunately for Hagerty, he’s from New Jersey. Some were unhappy because of the longer travel required for out-of-state residents to participate. The online poker operator is live in just four states.
“I know people that drove here today to play this exact event and this event only,” a person on Twitter said. “You cancel ten minutes prior??? Site is running great and there were more than the minimum entrants required to run. This is impressive.”
Another person said they drove two hours to play in the event.
Somewhat fortunately for the WSOP, the tournament had enough players, so there weren’t any tweets we could find alleging that the platform deliberately scrapped the event at the last minute for lack of participation. The $3,200 high roller is part of an eight-event online bracelet series confined to within Keystone State borders. The series was slated to end Aug. 15, but it now appears it will end Aug. 17 or 18 after the conclusion of the postponed event.
Earlier this month, the WSOP completed its more than 30-event online bracelet series that was confined to Nevada, New Jersey, and Delaware, three states that are able to share liquidity. Pennsylvania does not yet allow that. The WSOP is expected to also launch in Michigan sometime this year.
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