With the coronavirus pandemic spreading around the United States, the NJ sports betting scene is going to be quiet for the foreseeable future. Most projections suggest that we probably won’t see the NHL or NBA back before mid-May at the earliest with the higher likelihood that they return in June.
In the meantime, online poker is taking off as many bettors are looking for something to do.
It’s not the first time we’ve seen this as poker was all the rage during previous NHL and NBA lockouts. Expect the same type of rush into online poker once again.
WSOP Circuit Super Series Moves Tournaments Online
The World Series of Poker is shifting its circuit events online. While we’re not quite sure what’s going to happen with the World Series of Poker itself, the WSOP Circuit Super Series is a collection of 18 separate events where the prizing reaches $1.24 million. Now those events will be hosted on the WSOP.com and 888 Poker platforms.
The key here is that the President of the United States, Donald Trump, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have made recommendations that events including 50 people or more should be avoided for the next weeks.
On Monday, the President updated that to say people should avoid gatherings of 10 or more. That’ clearly had a big impact on these big poker tournaments, which is why they quickly shifted gears to move them online.
The first three events of the series have actually already started as the NLH Double Stack, the NLH Monster Stack and the NLH Deep Turbo have all gotten underway.
The $320 NLH Double Stack, which took place on Saturday, March 14th, had a guaranteed prize pool of $50,000 but with 409 entries, the prize pool ballooned to $171,000.
The same was the story for the $215 NLH Monster Stack. It also had a guarantee of $50,000 but with 720 entries, they blew past the number, building up a prize pool of $188,200.
The Circuit Super Series will continue firing off one event every day all the way through March 31st. The biggest guaranteed prize pool is the $525 NLH Main Event, which is on March 29th and has a prize pool of $200,000.
While there are more than 16 events on the schedule, keep in mind that only residents of New Jersey, Nevada and Delaware are able to participate.
Will World Series Of Poker Be Postponed?
With COVID-19 going around and all sorts of sporting events being postponed or canceled, it has raised questions as to whether the 2020 World Series of Poker will take place as planned.
You might recall that in the past, there have already been concerns about hygiene and “the poker flu” being passed around at tournaments. Playing the tournament this year could be especially risky given how easily contagious the coronavirus appears to be.
With that in mind, all we’ve heard from the WSOP is that they are monitoring the events and are going to make a decision at a later time. As of now, things are scheduled as planned but The Strip is virtually shut down at this point as most of the casinos and poker rooms have closed.
Although it’s viewed as temporary, it’s unclear when they’ll be back in action. If this drags on longer than expected, the 2020 World Series of Poker will have to be pushed back, moved online or possibly even canceled.
PokerStars NJ Gives Big Bump To Online Poker Tournaments
It was a busy weekend for PokerStars NJ as they saw a lot of traffic in their tournaments. As a result, they announced that they’re boosting their Sunday Special incentive, which is normally at $25,000, but has now been bumped up to $35,000.
The latest Sunday Special ended up with 137 players in action with 79 rebuys to make a total prize pool of $40,176. If you feel like you’re missing out on those football Sundays, this gives you another option to get a taste of the action.
WPT, Other Tournaments Going The Online Route
The success of shifting the WSOP Circuit Super Series online and PokerStars NJ posting better-than-expected numbers, other live tournaments are looking at shifting their action online.
While the World Poker Tour has already postponed and canceled several events, they’ve also partnered with partypoker for their first-ever WPT Online Series. That action will take place from May 10th to May 26th.
This is just the tip of the iceberg as we’re going to see more tournaments do the same. For the health and safety of the majority, we simply can’t be in public spreading around the coronavirus but playing online is still a way to have some fun while we’re all cooped up and quarantined.
NJ Online Casinos Offer Plenty Of Options
Although many land-based casinos are closed for the time being, there are lots of great options for those looking to have some fun online. Residents of the state of New Jersey can get some sweet bonuses by playing at a number of different online shops like the Golden Nugget, Tropicana and Virgin Casino.
The Golden Nugget is offering up to $1500 in bonuses these days for new customers while Tropicana offers a simple $20 for free even before you make a deposit while Virgin Casino offers a free $30 upon signup along with $100 cashback on your first deposit.
If you’re missing out on visiting Atlantic City or one of the other spots where you normally play table games and slots, try playing at one of the aforementioned options as they’ll always be available to you throughout the current crisis – and beyond!
