This year’s 56th annual World Series of Poker (WSOP) features 100 bracelet events, millions of dollars and tens of thousands of poker players all hoping to strike gold.
Add into the mix billions of fans around the globe who will spend seven weeks this summer captivated by updates from Las Vegas and the WSOP is the only place to be.
For those at the felt and unable to attend alike, staying glued to updates from the Horseshoe Las Vegas and Paris Casinos is paramount. This year, the WSOP have launched WSOP+, an app that not only holds details of each and every WSOP bracelet event, but qualifiers and other feeder events too.
Players and fans have reacted to it from around the world and we’ve gathered in as many opinions as possible to gauge if the newest way to follow the World Series of Poker is an all-in or a fold.
Christmas Day Comes Early
For many poker players, Christmas isn’t in December, but late May, when Las Vegas is transformed from the already bustling gambling capital of the world into the Mardi Gras of poker.
Wall-to-wall cash game action throughout the series, 100 bracelet events, and the best players in the world all flock to Sin City and this year, on the eve of the festivities, GGPoker Global Ambassador Daniel Negreanu announced the WSOP’s newest innovation – WSOP+.
The initial reaction to the launch of the WSOP+ app was mixed. Would it replace updates on sites such as PokerNews? Would the app work for everybody around the world in different time zones? What if it crashed when too many people tried to use it?
Then the big kick-off came, and players were over the moon with how the app benefitted them.
“Have fun… it’s poker Christmas, with an amazing app, no lines, tons ofpoker, and the new cash room is massive!” said Bob Mather, who couldn’t wait to get into the action.
The youngest-ever winner of the WSOP Main Event, 2009 world champion Joe Cada went even further, saying: “This new WSOP App is amazing”.
Overwhelmingly Positive Feedback
We canvassed players from all levels about the WSOP+ app and most players were in favor to say the least. Even long-time sceptics of WSOP changes had to admit they’d done a great job, such as Mark Seif.
The ‘Italian Pirate’, Max Pescatori agreed, calling the WSOP+ app “a game changer,” while Alex Duvall highlighted a particular trait that he found useful from a player’s point of view.
Very interesting new feature with the WSOP+ app where players now register online. Everyone has access to player names before even sitting down. You can even add player notes within the app as if you’re playing online!
This kind of innovation harks to what GGPoker stated when they bought out the WSOP brand for $500m. The alignment of the online and live elements of poker was crucial to their purchase and future development of the brand.
This was evident in another positive aspect of downloading the app for GGPoker users.
“The WSOP+ app uses the same log-in [on] GGpoker or ClubGG, so if you have an account you do not need to create one,” said PokerGO’s Tim Duckworth, who knows a thing or two about running smooth tournaments, having done so at the Texas Poker Open and many other PokerGO festivals.
I went down to verify my WSOP+ app today and it was an incredibly smooth process: Paris Main Cage – ID verification – Link to WSOP+ player ID – Deposit money – showed in account in seconds.
The six-time WSOP bracelet winner Josh Arieh said:
The WSOP+ app is amazing. If everyone did their part and updated their chip counts, it would make sweating events so much better for everyone. Go to Story (you have to put something in the text box), then click the chip logo.
It says something when even Phil Ivey is interested in a poker app, as the so-called ‘G.O.A.T.’ got his friend Daniel Negreanu to help him with setting it up.
A full demonstration of this was done on screen by the popular poker player and author Lexy Gavin-Mather, which has been viewed thousands of times by eager fans.
A Few Negatives
While the reaction to the WSOP+ app has been very positive, some of poker’s most insightful players have pointed out areas of improvement.
“The WSOP+ app is incredible and definitely improving the experience this summer but can we have it default to displaying real names and only real names, please?” said the former WSOP Main Event runner-up David Williams.
He then added:
The WSOP website no longer has the history and reporting of previous years. Player historical results are also gone now. Please, GGPoker, put the site back to the way it was.
Allen ‘Chainsaw’ Kessler said:
Powers that be at WSOP – nicknames should be disabled on the WSOP+ app. It looks like around 10-20% are using the nickname option. Imagine if everyone did. Every player should be listed as their real name.
This opinion was seconded by several players and fans. Nicknames bug everyone in poker and real names always improve the narrative of any event, as well as adding to the overall legitimacy of the game to outside observers in the wider media.
DJ MacKinnon suggested that the app should keep eliminated players as busted in the player search to avoid getting texts about them after their elimination, while Nick Niederer was one of the only thoroughly dissenting voices we could find.
The new app is *** for fans and supporters in general; it’s more tailored for people playing events. Us fans following from home [want live] updates, past results, historical data and reporting like the old site. Bring it back.
Frequent legal commentator and poker enthusiast Todd Witteles thought the nickname glitch couldn’t have gone worse given a late chip leader in one event, which eventually led to a hilarious and ironic exit:
Anonymous Source Speaks
We spoke to an anonymous source at the WSOP, and they were honest and frank about the app’s release and the overall reaction they’d received.
The main complaints I’ve seen from the app are obviously the nickname thing, everyone seems to be on board with no nicknames.
But also, the tournament results and recaps are hard to find after events are completed and they want a separate live updates tab to be able to easily search and follow live reporting updates without having to see everyone’s social posts..
Most people’s stats haven’t been transferred over, which if I understand correctly they are working on now and they eventually will be. But a lot of people have [been] impatient with it. People want to be able to tag certain players to be able to follow them through the series.”
We asked our anonymous source to share their thoughts overall.
If I had to add things myself, I’d say the ability to repost, schedule posts, and pin posts would be a nice addition, as well as being alerted when someone likes or comments on one of your posts.
It allows everyone to update their own chip counts, but it doesn’t allow you to edit photos or chip counts once you’ve posted them. You have to delete the whole post and repost it.
One other small thing came to their attention as they considered improvements to the app taking the poker world by storm.
I’d like them to add a map of the Paris and Horseshoe right in the app so people know where their table and section are,” they said. “I have to assume they’re aware and working on most of these things, and overall the app has been pretty solid.
With that feedback echoed throughout the game, the WSOP+ app looks destined to become a growing part of poker’s biggest festival of the year for many series to come.
