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Andrew Kelsall Wins WSOP Global Championship

The World Series of Poker Online recently concluded and was a monumental success. However, there was one online bracelet left to be awarded. The WSOP Global Championship was held on Sunday, concluding the 2019-2020 WSOP Circuit season.

The penultimate event for any WSOP Circuit season, this event awards a WSOP bracelet to the winner. This year, the winner is three-time WSOP Circuit ring winner Andrew Kelsall. GGPoker ambassador Daniel Negreanu took one last shot at a bracelet in this event, but fell short of the final table, finishing 9th.

WSOP Championship Draws 130 Runners

The 2020 WSOP Global Championship kicked off on Sunday at WSOP.com. Like any Global Championship, the field was comprised primarily of WSOP-C Main Event winners, Casino Champions, and at-large qualifiers.

Also, any player that won a WSOP-C ring during the current season of finishing in the top 100 the last year’s WSOP Player of the Year race could buy-in directly for $10,000. Seven players opted to buy-in directly, including Matt Stout, Mike “The Mouth” Matusow, and Daniel Negreanu.

Matt Stout made a deep run in the event, finishing 17th. Both Negreanu and Matusow flirted with the final table but fell short. Matusow finished in 10th, while Negreanu finished in ninth.

AJ Kelsall Wins Global Championship

The final table of the Global Championship was a nice mix of champions and qualifiers. Eric Ethans, Sam Crosby, Brad Albrinck, and AJ Kelsall all made the final as at-large qualifiers. Frank Marasco and Shawn Daniels were both WSOP.com Finale champions. Michael Trivett was his seat into the championship after taking down the Planet Hollywood WSOP-C Main Event. Finally, Michael Wang was the Horseshoe Baltimore Casino Champ.

AJ "RandyLerch" Kelsall Wins 2020 WSOP Global Casino Championship ($275,632) https://t.co/SKfvVk6MT3 pic.twitter.com/SkHx1R2qi7

— BoboMadDog (@bobomaddog) September 14, 2020

We don’t have a ton of details on the final table, but ultimately it was AJ Kelsall facing Michael Trivett for the title. The chip lead flip-flopped between the two before Kelsall took it for good. In the end, he connected on a double-gutter to win the Global Championship and his first WSOP bracelet.

For his win, Kelsall won $275,632 in prize money.

WSOP Circuit Season on Hold – For Now

Normally, the WSOP Global Championship would be held during an early WSOP-C stop at Harrah’s Cherokee in North Carolina. Of course, the coronavirus pandemic has put all of that on hold. For now, the WSOP has yet to make an announcement regarding the short-term future of the WSOP Circuit.

Should things continue as they have in 2020, odds are that WSOP-C stops will be run on WSOP.com or GGPoker. Granted, the number of events would be greatly reduced. Of course, there is always the option of delaying the next WSOP-C season until the end of the pandemic.

While holding the World Series of Poker online was a viable option, the WSOP Circuit is not the same beast. The WSOP-C is more of a minor league system for the WSOP and more of a regional event. Since many of the states that host events are not online, it would be very difficult to hold events online. While you could still offer online tournaments, players would be limited to playing in Nevada or New Jersey, at least for now.

Unlike the WSOP, my personal opinion is that the WSOP Circuit should be put on indefinite hold until live poker can resume. Moving the events online for an entire season would cheapen the concept and make the Circuit no different than your standard online events at PokerStars or partypoker.

The reality is that the only people that cared about the WSOP Global Championship this year were those playing it. Moving it online was done out of necessity, but it is not necessary to hold the next season online.

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