More Cancelled Events Due To COVID-19

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The coronavirus continues to play havoc with the world of poker, as over the weekend, there were a host of events that were cancelled due to the global emergency. The announcements were made over Thursday and Friday, with MGM announcing that they would be closing down a host of their casinos in Sin City.

The Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood made the decision to cancel the remainder of the competition after day one. They revealed that they would be making the decision to pay out all players that made it through to the second day. They went further by revealing that they would be covering the flights that players had scheduled which were subsequently cancelled.

WPT Announce More Cancellations

The World Poker Tour also announced changes to their scheduled events, with a main event postponed on Thursday evening. The event was due to take place less than 24 hours later at the Venetian. The WPT wasn’t the only events to be knocked, as the WPTDeep Stakes also announced multiple cancellations of their events.

There were events at Thunder Valley, and Jacksonville both pulled, while the event in the European Championships due to take place in Deauville was also cancelled. There was also an event on the World Series of Poker in Atlantic City that was cancelled, while an event in Los Angeles was also cancelled.

It wasn’t just in America where the events were being pulled, as one that was due to take place in the King’s Casino in the Czech Republic was also postponed midway through the event. There were some events that still took place, however, but with smaller prize pots for the players involved. Two of those events came from the Hard Rock in Tulsa and Bay 101’s.

The Wynn in Las Vegas has banned large gatherings for the foreseeable future, while they have also taken measures to ensure the safety of all those in the casino. The establishment revealed that they would be using body temperature cameras to combat COVID-19. Unibet also changed their event from the weekend into an online platform to continue with the action.

Ivey Wins Big In Sochi

The PartyPoker Millions in Sochi went ahead as planned, and it was won by Phil Ivey. The Poker Hall of Famer outlasted 55 other people to take home $856,050 in prize money. It was a welcome win for Ivey, as it was his first success since 2018’s Triton Super High Roller in Montenegro. The win also means that he is now eleventh on the all-time earners’ list, with nearly $30 million picked up in prize money.

The other winner of the weekend was Xia He Jilang, who won the $25,000 buy-in short deck competition. He took home just under $380,000 for the win, while John Cynn finished in second place in the event. Cynn received $252,000 for his efforts, which was the third-highest amount that he has won on the circuit.

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