Live poker made a bold restart earlier this year. The players loved it and turned up in droves, with many events in the UK and Europe posting record attendances. The World Series of Poker in Las Vegas made it through the squeaky bum period of ‘will it, won’t it’ go ahead and Phil “16 times world champion” Hellmuth will be pleased about that, given he had a stellar series, securing one bracelet and narrowly missing several more.
But it has been a short lived resurgence as another wave of rising Covid-19 infection rates has resulted in a spate of recent postponements and cancellations.
While the WSOP continues in Europe in Rozvadov, it is in a precarious position due to newly declared state of emergency in the Czech Republic. The recently enacted law includes an outright ban on public consumption of alcohol, a 10pm curfew and a maximum capacity of 1,000 people in hospitality venues.
And Another One Gone
In response to the new situation PokerStars have postponed the forthcoming EPT Prague event, as have the organiser of the Bounty Poker Tour event that had been due to take place at Grand Casino Asch, also in the Czech Republic.
As for the WSOPE in Rozvadov, while it is still continuing, they have made changes to event capacities and tournament schedules to ensure a 10pm end to play each evening. Whether it manages to conclude without further threat of closure remains in question as the situation intensifies and the Cz government cracks down.
And Another One Gone
Throughout Europe many other poker events have been forced to cancel or postpone. Two events in Ireland recently also recently bit the felt, namely the PokerStars sponsored Mammoth event and the Party Poker Grand Prix event that had been scheduled for January. The Mammoth has been rescheduled to March, but the Grand Prix is on hold until further notice.
And Another One Bites the Dust
The Liechtenstein Poker Festival in mid-December was also officially canned this week due to the pandemic, however the reason that this week’s TexaPoker Series event in Sanremo did not go ahead was due to strike action by employees of the casino.
Hey I’m Gonna Get You Too
In Austria all casinos have been forcibly closed until 12th December, with a similar situation also occurring in neighbouring country Slovakia. Casinos Austria have also delayed the restart of the Casinos Austria Poker Tour, rescheduling the January event in Seefeld to February/March.
Cancelled!
- WSOPE, Rozvadov, Czech Republic, 19 Nov – 8 Dec, ONGOING BUT 10PM CURFEW IN PLACE
TexaPoker Series, San Remo, Italy, 24-28 NovCANCELLED DUE TO CASINO EMPLOYEE STRIKE ACTION- Bounty Hunter Tour, Asch, Czech Republic, 1-5 Dec. CANCELLED
PokerStars Mammoth, Dublin, Ireland, 1-5 DecPOSTPONED UNTIL MARCH 2022EPT Prague, Czech Republic, 9-17 DecPOSTPONED UNTIL TBC- Liechtenstein Poker Festival, 15-21 Dec. CANCELLED
- Party Poker Grand Prix, Dublin, Ireland, 1-7 Jan, 2022. POSTPONED UNTIL TBC
- CAPT Seefeld, Austria, Jan 2022. POSTPONED UNTIL FEB/MARCH 2022
Image “雪のため通行止め Road Closed Due to Heavy Snow” by Yuya Sekiguchi is licensed under CC BY 2.0
Jonathan began his career in 1998 as one of the first employees of start-up betting site Blue Square. Having developed the first ever affiliate marketing program for a UK online bookmaker, Jonathan switched his attentions to poker, developing live events and tours, first for Grosvenor Casinos and then for PokerStars. Tours created include Grosvenor UK Poker Tour and Eureka Poker Tour. Staff Person of the Year 2008, European Poker Awards. During the poker boom of 2005-2010 he wrote for many poker publications, including Poker Europa magazine and Poker Player Newspaper
