Poker Community Reacts To PokerGO Tour And Ranking System Announcement – US Bets

Poker tournaments are back! At least thats what PokerGO is hoping and the streaming service is combining that hoping with doing, as it takes action to inject new energy into the tournament scene.

As live poker continues to return in stages from the COVID-19 shutdowns of poker rooms, cancellations of tournaments, and widespread hesitancy to sit at a poker table during a pandemic, PokerGO made a major announcement Thursday of the PokerGO Tour, promising tens of millions of dollars at stake across 150 tournaments spanning across the globe. The tour comes with a points system, rankings, and, at the end of the season, a Player of the Year.

Its not an entirely new idea; the World Series of Poker and World Poker Tour have long had their own points systems and Player of the Year awards, and Global Poker Index tracks a variety of tournaments and ranks players as well.

But what distinguishes this venture by PokerGO until now, best known for airing events such as the Super High Roller Bowl and made-for-TV shows like High Stakes Poker is the planned breadth of the tour.

Will players complain as it goes along that the points system and access to the tournaments is inequitable? Probably no attempt at a poker ranking system, whether for live competition or online poker play, has ever escaped criticism. Still, hopes are high for something players and fans can rally around after the countless disappointments of the last 13 months.

With the announcement came a variety of reactions on Twitter.

One of pokers biggest stars and most recognizable ambassadors, two-time WSOP Player of the Year Daniel Kid Poker Negreanu, offered an enthusiastic endorsement:

Fellow pro Jonathan Little went the emoji route:

When someone replying to him asked, Are you in??? Little gave an emphatic but noncommittal Maybe!

There was also snark and skepticism to be found. The $175,000 in cash prizes elicited confusion, as the prize pools will add up to many millions of dollars, but the $175K is added money for the top three finishers in the Player of the Year race ($100K for first, $50K for second, and $25K for third). Without that spelled out, $175,000 struck plenty of people as a meager amount:

And some were just sarcastic and apathetic for unspecified reasons:

PokerGO has announced five tour events thus far:

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Poker Community Reacts To PokerGO Tour And Ranking System Announcement - US Bets