Editor
The WSOP Circuit will make its long-awaited return to Atlantic City in 2025, the first such stop in the iconic New Jersey casino town since the COVID pandemic.
The Atlantic City circuit series will be held as part of the 2025-26 WSOPC calendar from August 14-25. The circuit was a regular part of the WSOPC schedule from 2005-2020, before taking a hiatus after COVID, which has turned into a long drought.
This stop will automatically fill a hole that the WSOPC has in the Northeast USA. Almost every other region of the country has good representation on the circuit.
However, with the Atlantic City stop being removed from the calendar and the usual Foxwoods stop in Connecticut no longer existing, there is no representation in the Northeast states outside of Turning Stone in upstate NY. There have been WSOPC rings given away online in NJ, but no live rings since 2020.
Ryan Eriquezzo won the Main Event in Harrah’s Atlantic City the last time the series was held in AC for his fourth ring at the time. He won $124,397, topping the 357-entry field.
This WSOPC stop will be played at Caesar’s property, Harrah’s Atlantic City. The MGM property, “The Borgata,” is the most well-known poker destination in AC. The Borgata also had a post-COVID poker hiatus, as players in the region waited and waited.
But that hiatus was ended in January 2023, as the Borgata started large poker series again and has held a Borgata poker series every few months since. The good numbers at the Borgata series indicate that there is still an appetite for poker in NJ.
Atlantic City has long been a poker hotbed in the USA with a long history. But the historical lore of the oceanside NJ casino-scape has faded over the years. With the advent of bustling live poker scenes in Maryland and Philadelphia in recent years, players in the region are potentially losing the need to go to Atlantic City at all.
The time to act and hold this series is this year. Harrah’s hopes that this WSOPC series solidifies itself as a destination for players before the establishment of casinos in New York City, which are very likely to be coming soon.
Once those open, lots of the poker traffic in NY/NJ may spill over to those NYC casinos. But the circuit ring chasers and tournament grinders may stay loyal to Atlantic City if the WSOPC series is well run and becomes a regular fixture on the calendar.
