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There were speculations on a possible easing of entry criteria in the U.S., which currently bars the majority of non-citizens who have passed through any of the 26 European nations of the Schengen Treaty, the United Kingdom, China, South Africa and Brazil, among other countries, in the 14 days prior to arrival in the US.
Added to the need to spend two weeks in a country without sanitary restrictions with the US, the country suspended routine interviews for non-immigrant visas in Brazil, as reported on the embassy website. With that, Brazil runs the risk of having the smallest contingent of Brazilian players in a long time in the series that is considered the world championship of poker.
But how will this WSOP be like?
With the arrival of vaccines and the drop in hospital admissions and deaths in the United States, the world poker series has announced that it will host a WSOP with a well-planned 2021 schedule. Initially, 88 bracelet events are scheduled, and members of the poker community and media worldwide have speculated that we might have the biggest Main Event of all time.
Due to the pent-up demand during the isolation period and also the approach of many quarantines to poker there was an explosion in the numbers of the first live events that took place in the country. In April of this year, the WPT had a record number of entries in a tournament of the series, with 2,482 entries worth US$3,500 to the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Main Event.
The fact is that the state of Nevada, which has 44% of its population fully vaccinated, has seen an increase in cases according to a report from the New York Times, and this is probably due to the arrival of the delta variant to the country.
The poker community itself has expressed concern about what will happen at the WSOP. Although the organization has not yet commented on possible changes, there are speculations about the decrease in the number of events, the mandatory use of masks and proof of vaccination.
According to the Reuters report, the Biden administration refused to give a forecast of when it could ease the measures that are in place and did not say whether it intends to remove restrictions on individual countries. The agency also recently reported that sources said the government had considered the possibility of requiring vaccinations from visitors, but while the discussion is still active in the White House, no conclusions have been reached.
If, on the one hand, an eventual change from the quarantine requirement for Brazilian travelers to mandatory vaccination seems to be good news, the fact is that many younger Brazilians are at risk of not being vaccinated with two doses until the WSOP. For poker fans here, all that's left is the crowd so we can have the greatest number of players and the best chances of bringing bracelets to the country.
