World Series of Poker Global Casino Championship to be held online

The World Series of Poker Global Casino Championship, which had been scheduled for Aug. 11-13 in Cherokee, North Carolina, before the coronavirus pandemic, has now been moved online.

The event, featuring $1 million in guaranteed prize money and open only to certain qualifiers, will now be held on WSOP.com in Nevada and New Jersey on Sept. 13.

WSOP.com will hold a Circuit Season Finale tournament series June 3-14 to award the final 13 qualifying spots for the Global Casino Championship.

Players who have already qualified will have to be physically present in Nevada or New Jersey to play in the event, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports.

"We want to do right by our players and see the promised prize money put up for grabs," Ty Stewart, executive director of the WSOP, said in a release. "Hopefully the choice of an East Coast or West Coast destination makes it more viable for qualifying players. … We look forward to returning to Harrah’s Cherokee in 2021 but until then, the show must go on … online."

No points will be awarded for the Circuit Season Finale, so players qualifying via points have locked in their berths, according to the release. Twelve WSOP Circuit stops were postponed completely because of the pandemic, and two others were altered.

The flagship World Series of Poker was supposed to begin Tuesday but has been postponed. Officials have said they hope to hold the event in the fall, but no dates have been set.