WSOP Online Bracelet Events in Pennsylvania: Everything You Need to Know

Organizers have added another eight bracelets to the schedule at the newest WSOP room, WSOP PA.

For the first very time in history, players in Pennsylvania will be able to compete for an official WSOP bracelet without leaving their state. From the comfort of their own home, they can sign up to WSOP PA, download the next-gen desktop software or mobile app, vie for a bracelet playing online.

And given the quiet launch from WSOP PA, these could very small player turnouts, giving Pennsylvania online poker players one of the best chances are netting a bracelet for a very long time.

WSOP PA Bracelet Series: Key Details

Eight Bracelets on Offer in the Keystone State

WSOP PA is now officially live and to celebrate it is hosting an eight-event series offering the most coveted trophy in poker as prizes. Buy-ins for the series range from $400 to $3,200, with the average buy-in is $922.

That is more than $200 less than the $1,190 average across the 33 events in the NJ/NV Bracelet series, but slightly more than the $846 average of the first eight events in the Garden state series.

One of the big differences between the markets is that NJ/NV features a $5,300 high roller, whereas $3,200 is the most expensive event in PA.

The WSOP PA series includes two multi-day events to start and end the series, with the rest of the games as single-day events. The cheapest chance at a bracelet in PA is Event #6 on August 13 at $400, while the $3,200 High Roller runs as Event #3 on August 10.

WSOP PA Bracelet Series Schedule Details

A Quiet Launch into Pennsylvania Online Poker—with a Separate Player Pool, for Now

When WSOP Pennsylvania went live a couple of weeks ago, it did so with a separate player pool from the WSOP/888 US Network, which combines players from New Jersey, Nevada and Delaware.

While the appeal period in the Wire Act case expired in late June, there are still open questions around when and how shared liquidity will go forward in the US, and WSOP wanted to go live in PA before all the details were worked out.

So while there is a 33-bracelet series ongoing on the WSOP/888 US Network for NJ and NV players, new players in PA were excluded from those events. With the WSOP brand front and center however, it was always expected that PA players would get a shot at WSOP glory.

In an interview with pokerfuse, WSOP Executive Director Ty Stewart made that clear when asked about bracelet prospects in future PA and MI rooms. “For certain once we are live we will give WSOP.com players the exclusive opportunity to win bracelets online and qualify for the WSOP.”

The latest bracelet series in PA has eight total events running from August 8 through August 15. Players will pay just under $1,000 on average to enter each event, and to play all eight, players will need at least $7,300 in their bankroll to play the whole series.

Sign Up to get In on the Action

Pennsylvania online poker players yet to sign up to WSOP PA still have time to get in on the action—and pokerfuse has netted you an exclusive bonus code so you can maximize your first deposit: up to an insane $1060 in additional value!

Here is the top line info you need: Players that sign up and make a deposit of $10 get $50 worth of free-play funds. And, if you use pokerfuse’s special bonus code FUSEBONUS you will get another $10 in freeplay on top of that!

This $60 is instantly available to play with, though requires a little playthrough for it to be eligible for withdrawal. Read our full WSOP PA guide for more information.

But that’s not all. WSOP will also match that first deposit 100% up to a $1000 in bonus money. This money isn’t immediately available—it is put in a bonus account; as you play, the bonus money is released, in $5 chunks.

For players of any bankroll size it is a perfect way to get extra cash just playing your favorite games—whether that’s playing WSOP PA events, satellites for those events, or just regular tournaments, cash games or SNGs.

Pennsylvania is truly the hottest, most competitive online poker market in the world right now, and residents of the state are in an unprecedented position to take advantage of offers from operators. There are four poker sites now trying to get your attention, and each one has a very lucrative signup offer. Top details below, and you can read a more detailed guide in our exclusive in-depth guide to PA Online Poker sites.

Biggest WSOP Ever

With the addition of the series in Pennsylvania, the total number of bracelets on offer in 2021 goes up to an astonishing 177. That number is still expected to increase yet again once WSOP goes live with a poker room in Michigan.

By the time the dust settles and all the schedules are set in stone, players should expect more than 180 bracelets to be handed out in 2021. If Michigan has a series similar to PA, that will put the final number at 185, by far the largest haul of bracelets in any single year.

The sheer number of bracelets on offer in 2021 is bound to spark questions about the devaluation of bracelets in the poker ecosystem. With the addition of a large number of online bracelets as well, there is an additional layer of questions about a trophy that was exclusively live for most of its existence.

But the WSOP has been in existence for more than 50 years, and the game of poker in 2021 is nearly unrecognizable compared to the days of the early 70s. The game has evolved in ways that simply could not have been predicted in the early days of smoke-filled rooms at Binion’s.

Not only does poker appeal to a much wider audience today than it did in the early days of the WSOP, but online poker has transformed the game. In 2021 it is only fitting that a significant percentage of poker’s biggest trophies should be awarded in the online format, since most of the poker played in 2021 globally will be played online.

WSOP 2021 at a Glance

At the same time, the massive increase in live fields over the years means that individual bracelets are harder to win today than they were in the old days. In 1976, the year Doyle Brunson won his first Main Event title, he had to best a field of 22 players. When Hossein Ensan took down the 2019 Main Event title, he had to battle through a massive field of 8,569 players to get the hardware.

As is true in many sports, it is hard to compare different eras of the game. Every era has its own unique elements that make it fundamentally different from the ones before, and it could be argued that bracelets won in the days of 22 player Main Event fields are “devalued” compared to Ensan emerging on top of a pile of 8,568 other stacks.

In the end, players still covet bracelets as the pinnacle of the game, and most players who have been around the game for any length of time recognize a “bracelet” as a sign of poker success. This year, there will be an unprecedented number of the trophies on offer through the year, but in a modern era with ubiquitous online poker and live field sizes of thousands, that is perhaps completely appropriate.

Pennsylvania players will get their shots at online bracelets from August 8 through August 15, and a further series for Michigan is still in the wings. Check out our handy chart of how the 2021 WSOP looks as a whole with all the currently available data below: