Where Is The World Series Of Poker Held

Joseph Hebert won the ‘Domestic Tournament’ of the 2020 World Series of Poker $10,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em main event Monday evening in Las Vegas.

The 38-year-old poker player and part-time waiter from Metairie, Louisiana navigated his way through a field of 705 total entries in the US-facing segment of this year’s uniquely formatted flagship event of the WSOP. He survived two days of online poker action to make the live and in-person final table that played out on Dec. 28 at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino. Hebert emerged victorious from the final eight players that reconvened in Las Vegas, capturing the title and the top prize of $1,553,256.

Herbert dedicated the win to his late mother, Linda, who passed away earlier this year due to a pulmonary embolism. His last text conversation with his mother had been about his dream of winning a WSOP bracelet. He is now set to face off against WSOP main event ‘International Tournament’ winner Damian Salas on Sunday, Jan. 3 at the Rio, with the championship gold bracelet and $1,000,000 in added prize money on the line.

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The World Series of Poker (WSOP) is held annually in Las Vegas. It's the largest and most attended poker festival in the world. This world championship collects thousands of ordinary poker fans and all best players to challenge not only the title of the best poker player in the world but also to win one of the 60+ prestigious WSOP bracelets. The World Series of Poker (WSOP) is held annually in Las Vegas. It's the largest and most attended poker festival in the world. This world championship collects thousands of ordinary poker fans and all best. Mar 06, 2021 If you’re among the thousands of players that have been wondering about the future of the World Series of Poker at the Rio, wonder no longer. According to both an article on CardPlayer and tweets from WSOP VP of Corporate Communications Seth Palansky, the WSOP will not be moving for at least two years.

“I am just so excited!” said Hebert at the start of his post-win press conference. He went on to say, “I’m gonna take this all in. Winning this tournament was my ultimate goal, for my mom, but having the freeroll is just another bonus. I’m just going to take my time and figure out what to do about that, and go from there.”

The win brought Hebert’s lifetime live tournament earnings to $2,168,314. His largest score prior to this victory was $140,932, which he earned as the runner-up in the 2013 WSOP Circuit Harrah’s New Orleans main event.

The ‘Domestic Tournament’ final table was the talk of the poker world before cards even got in the air at 3:00 p.m. pacific time on Monday, Dec. 28. Unfortunately, the typical chatter about who might win or discussion of interesting backstories of the competitors was drowned out by the breaking news that Upeshka De Silva was reportedly being disqualified from the event due to testing positive for COVID-19 on the day before the final table began. The three-time WSOP bracelet winner from Texas was ultimately awarded ninth-place money as a result, earning $98,813.

De Silva’s stack was officially removed from play, which meant that only eight players converged on the final table stage in the Rio in order to battle it out on the felt. Gershon Distenfeld began the day in sixth chip position but got off to a slow start. He lost a considerable chunk of his stack just a few hands into the action when he ran pocket tens into the pocket queens of short stack Harrison Dobin. The superior pair held up and Distenfeld found himself at the bottom of the chip counts. Just a couple of hands after that, he got the last of his stack in with KJ against the pocket queens of Ron Jenkins. Distenfeld failed to improve and was eliminated in eighth place. He earned $125,885 for his deep run in this event, all of which he intends to donate to charitable causes. The 44-year-old works in finance and has been committed to philanthropic works for years now.

“There is a parallel to investing: you don’t blindly invest in companies, you also don’t blindly invest in a charity. You have to do your research. My wife and I have been very fortunate to be blessed with resources. We have spent our time, not only donating money but also getting involved in charities and getting our hands dirty. We didn’t have to start from scratch, as we decided to give to charities that we have been involved with for a long time,” said Distenfeld after being eliminated. “We are in a pandemic now and the need is greater than ever.”

Seven-handed action continued for more than two-and-a-half hours. Shawn Stroke was the next to fall. The 31-year-old Long Island native came into the day in second chip position but fell to the bottom of the leaderboard during the early hours of play. He got his last chips in preflop with pocket threes, only to have Harrison Dobin three-bet all-in over the top with A-K and Ron Jenkins call all-in behind with pocket queens. Jenkins’ big pair held up through the river and Stroke was eliminated in seventh place, earning $163,786 for his strong showing.

Dobin was left with just four big blinds after the hand, while Jenkins surged up the chip counts. Dobin got his last chips with 5-3 offsuit up against the K-2 offsuit of Hebert, who had raised on the button. Hebert flopped two pair and held from there to send Dobin home in sixth place. The 26-year-old earned $215,222, having laddered up several pay jumps despite starting the final table as the shortest stack.

25-year-old Wisconsin-based mathematics doctoral candidate Ye Yuan’s run in this event came to an end when his A10 couldn’t outrun the 44 of Hebert. Neither player improved and Yuan was knocked out in fifth place ($286,963).

The final four battled it out for more than half an hour before the next elimination took place. In a battle of the blinds, Ron Jenkins shoved all-in from the small blind with AJ and Ryan Hagerty called from the big blind with A8. Both players paired their live cards on the flop, but Hagerty received no further help and was sent home in fourth place. The 28-year-old poker player earned $387,130 for the largest live tournament score of his career.

Just six hands after Hagerty was eliminated, his sometimes-roommate on the live tournament circuit Michael Cannon joined him on the rail. Cannon three-bet all-in over the button min-raise of Hebert holding KQ. Hebert quickly called the shove of around 16 big blinds with AA. A clean runout saw the 29-year-old former professional video game player knocked out in third place. He took home $529,258 for his deep run, by far the largest live tournament cash of his career.

With that, Hebert took just over a 2:1 chip lead into heads-up play against Ron Jenkins, who had begun the day as the second shortest stack with just 17 big blinds. Jenkins has plenty of experience on the felt, with nearly $400,000 in prior live tournament cashes to his name.

The two took a short break before resuming action. On the very first hand back, Hebert raised to 700,000 on the button with AQ. Jenkins three-bet to 2,300,000 with QQ. Hebert four-bet all-in and Jenkins called off his last 10.8 million or so. He was ahead preflop with his pocket queens, but an AK748 runout secured the pot and the title for Hebert.

“I thought it was going to be a battle heads-up,” said Hebert. “[Jenkins] plays a lot of long-ball, making big bets. I thought I was going to have to pick my spots, but I certainly didn’t expect it to end like that. I don’t think anybody did. I don’t even think the camera crew was ready to film (laughs).”

Jenkins earned $1,002,340 as the runner-up finisher, while Hebert set up his final showdown for the bracelet against WSOP main event International Tournament winner Damian Salas.

“I really don’t know that much about Damian. I need to read up on him a little more. I was trying to focus on this final table first,” revealed Hebert after coming out on top. “I’m super excited and can’t wait to face him.”

The two will take a seat opposite each other starting at 5:00 p.m. pacific time on Sunday, Jan. 3, with the championship gold bracelet and $1,000,000 in added prize money up for grabs.

Here is a look at the payouts awarded at the final table:

Hebert photo credit: GGPoker Twitter Account.

Where Is The World Series Of Poker Held

Just 49 days before the new year, the World Series of Poker has announced that there will indeed be a $10,000 WSOP main event world champion decided in 2020.

Despite the doubt created by a global pandemic, the WSOP sent out a press release on Friday, Nov. 13 revealing that the biggest and richest poker tournament in the world would take place for the 51st consecutive year.

The 2020 WSOP main event will once again feature a $10,000 buy-in, with no-limit hold’em as the game. While those basic facts remain the same, quite a lot will be different for this main event.

“There must be a World Champion in 2020,” said WSOP Executive Director Ty Stewart. “Poker’s history is too important. It’s a unique format for the main event, but this is a unique year. We want to keep players’ health and safety top of mind and still deliver a great televised showcase for the game we love.”

“Due to travel restrictions, and out of an abundance of caution for player safety, this year’s format will be unique, where early round play will begin online with one entry on WSOP.com or GGPoker.com, before shifting to a live setting for final table action on two continents,” said the press release from the WSOP. “Each ‘bracket’ will pay out prize money to tournament entrants independently. The final table will be a world’s first, as an ultimate heads-up duel for the World Championship, where $1 million in prize money will be on the line courtesy of Caesars Entertainment, Inc. and GGPoker. The Main Event will be held consistent to the traditional ‘freeze-out’ standards of the Main Event, offering only single entry, as well as the longest levels and deepest stacks ever offered on the online platform.”

There will essentially be both a US-facing and international main event which will be run online and play down to a final table. The two events will then play out those final tables live at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas and the King’s Casino Rozvadov, with the two champions of those events meeting in a final heads-up showdown for the ultimate title and an added $1 million prize.

The ‘Domestic Tournament’ kicks off on Sunday, Dec. 13, and will be available to all players within the borders or Nevada and New Jersey. The final table is expected to be set the following day. The last nine players standing will reconvene on Monday, Dec. 28 to play to a winner. ESPN is set to air coverage of the event, featuring commentary from Lon McEachern and Norman Chad.

The ‘International Tournament’ will feature three starting flights on Nov. 29, and Dec. 5 and 6. The final table is scheduled to be set on Dec. 7, with the live final table at King’s Casino on Tuesday, Dec. 15.

Where Is The World Series Of Poker Held In Las Vegas

“All in-person tournaments, domestic and international, will be subject to special COVID rules and procedures, the details of which will be published at a later date and will require players to undergo a required health screening prior to live participation,” the WSOP noted in their release. “All participants must agree to abide by all applicable rules.”

The final heads-up showdown between the domestic and international winners will take place at the Rio on Dec. 30, with the championship gold bracelet and the $1 million in added prize money on the line.

The WSOP was set to award a record number of gold bracelets this year, with 101 events originally planned to run from late May through the middle of July, but was indefinitely put on hold along with the rest the live poker scene during the early months of the pandemic.

The series joined a number of other high-profile poker tournaments in hosting an online version of their events during the spring and summer months. The WSOP Online awarded 85 gold bracelets from the start of July through early September, with events spread across two separate online poker platforms. A total of 283,983 entries were made throughout the series, with $174.5 million in prize money awarded along the way.