2018 WSOP Global Casino Championship Announced With $1 Million Guaranteed
The jewel of the World Series of Poker Circuit has a date for 2018. The WSOP Global Casino Championship will take place from August 7-9, 2018 in Cherokee, NC to wrap up the 14th season of the WSOP Circuit. The guaranteed prize pool is $1 million and expects to attract both top professionals along with seasoned Circuit grinders.
How many seats are awarded?
There are 128 seats up for grabs for Global Casino Championship. The majority are reserved for the domestic side with 102 automatic qualifiers generated there. There is a total of 26 set aside for the International tour. All players who qualify for the GCC earn a freeroll into the event. Players can only qualify for a single freeroll seat.
Who gets to play?
Players qualify for the Global Casino Championship in five ways. The first three involve the Circuit. If a player wins a WSOP Circuit Main Event at a stop or wins the points championship through the series, they win an automatic seat. 2017 GCC winner Sean Yu won the WSOP Circuit Main Event at the Planet Hollywood stop in September 2016 to qualify through that method.
Fourth-place finisher in the GCC, Jesse Cohen, won the points title in the at the April 2017 Cherokee stop to earn his seat.
By the sheer number of seats awarded, the best way to qualify is by finishing in the top-50 in the overall 2017-18 Circuit Leaderboard. Josh Reichard took third in the 2017 GCC and earned his seat via the leaderboard. Reichard is currently second overall and will qualify through that manner again this time around.
Players who win a ring on the WSOP Circuit this season have the option to buy in for $10,000.
The final way to get in is also a direct buy-in of $10,000. Any player who finished in the top-100 in the 2017 World Series of Poker Player of the Year standings is eligible. 2016 WSOP Player of the Year Jason Mercier directly paid his way in for 2017 and took fifth.
Where to get points?
The tour features 11 more events with seven domestic and four foreign. The first available stop is at Harrah’s in Atlantic City, New Jersey, which includes the first-ever online circuit ring event in the state. The Circuit then continues its around the country with remaining stops in Oklahoma, Nevada, and Baltimore, among others.
The foreign WSOP Circuit tour carries three stops in Europe and one in Sochi, Russia. Italy, France, and the Czech Republic are the three European nations.
Harrah’s in New Orleans, LA is the last domestic stop and runs from May 10-21.
How big will the field get?
2017 featured a field of 124 entrants into the Global Casino Championship. Sean Yu’s win extracted $296,941 from the $1,090,000 prize pool. The first GCC brought in 126 entrants and Frenchman Said El-Yousfi took home $343,256.
Who has already qualified?
The breadth of the WSOP Circuit hits all parts of the country. Top pros travel to their local stops and come home with a seat. Former WPT World Championship winner Keven Stammen won the Main Event in Potawatomi, WI last month. WSOP bracelet owner Kyle Cartwright picked up the IP Biloxi Main Event ring in September 2017.
Dan Lowery earned two seats already, but can only use one. Lowery won the Casino Champion title in Lake Tahoe and followed that up with his sixth ring in the Choctaw Main Event last November.
Where to watch?
The 2017 GCC aired on ESPN but no formal broadcast partner has been announced for 2018 just yet. Stay tuned to all WSOP news for updates on that detail.