The World Series of Poker is removing their vaccination passport rules. Could that lead to a huge influx of participants in this year’s events? We’ll cover that in our weekly recap of the news.
Zufic Wins ARIA High Roller Poker Tournament
The ARIA $15,000 buy-in high stakes no-limit hold’em poker tournament has come and gone and Ivan Zufic was the last man standing. He walked away with the bracelet and $198,000 for his good work. He had to overcome a field of 33 entries in order to make this happen as well but the fruits of his labor was $198,000, which happened to be nearly half of the $495,000 prize pool.
Zufic isn’t new to winning big tournaments like this. His most recent win will be going down as the fourth-highest recorded tournament score in his career. The largest being a $855,460 cash out he had in the 2020 World Series of Poker Online $500 buy-in no-limit hold’em event. That event saw him take down a large 15,205 entry field. Zufic now has over $1.9 million in career tournament earnings.
On top of the money, he was awarded 288 Card Player Player of the Year points. It was the first recorded tournament score of the new year for him. He earned 198 PokerGO Tour points as well, jumping up to 20th on that leaderboard.
Imsirovic Wins Third High Roller Title Of the Year
Ali Imsirovic is building upon a legendary 2021 year with a hot start to 2022. The poker professional has just competed in the $10,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em high roller event that took place at the ARIA Resort in Las Vegas. He defeated a field of 36 entries in order to come out on top. He earned the title and a nice prize of $$129,600 for the win.
Imsirovic has been unstoppable lately as he had finished the 2021 year with 14 qualified Player of the Year titles won. Already in 2022, he has three titles to his name. In regard to the Card Player Player of the Year race, he is now sitting in fifth place in the standings. If he can continue this streak, he could possibly be the first player to ever win the POY race in back-to-back years.
World Series of Poker Gets Rid Of Vaccination Rule
The World Series of Poker is finally starting to come back to normal now that the pandemic is receding. Caesars Entertainment just made the announcement that the upcoming WSOP Series will take place from May 31st all the way through July 20th. They also said that they will be getting rid of the vaccination requirements for this 2022 competition.
This announcement comes right on the heels of Nevada gaming regulators lifting up the mask requirement that casinos had in the Las Vegas area. This move might be influenced by the fact that roughly 65 percent of the country’s population is vaccinated already.
This upcoming WSOP series is going to be hosted by Horseshoe, the rebranded casino that used to be known as Bally’s Las Vegas. The Paris Casino will also be hosting a few of the events right next door as well. This lifted restriction could end up making the 2022 WSOP an even bigger success than they were last year.