Partypoker Betting on Huge September with $60M Powerfest

Partypoker knows that it’s the time of the year for massive poker thrills. With PokerStars’ World Championship of Online Poker set to begin in September, Partypoker decided to up the ante.

Announcing its own Powerfest online poker series, Partypoker is set to dish out over $60 million in guaranteed prize money over the course of 670 events. The promised payout matches the figured offered by PokerStars' WCOOP series.

Breaking Down the Best Powerfest Events

Powerfest will feature 20 championship events and 15 events guaranteeing $1 million dollar prize pools. Some of the biggest of these events are as follows:

• Sept 3, $5,200 Super High Roller ($1 million)
• Sept 9, $1,050 High Roller ($1 million)
• Sept 18, $10,300 6-Max PLO ($500,000)
• Sept 18, $10,300 Super High Roller ($2 million)
• Sept 20, $25,500 Super High Roller ($3 million)
• Sept 23, $55 Medium Level ($250,000)
• Sept 23, $1,050 High Roller ($1 million)

That impressive itinerary represents the largest collection of tournaments the site has ever offered in conjunction with the biggest amount of guaranteed prize money the company has ever promised.

Buy-ins for these events will range from $1.10 to $25,500 meaning players from all walks of life and budget will be able to take part in the fun.

The event with the biggest potential payout, the $25,500 Super High Roller will take place on September 20 and feature a prize pool of $3 million. The Mini-Max format will also return specifically for Powerfest.

In Mix-Max, the events start with nine hands and then shift to six maximum until finally the event goes heads up when two players remain. A grand total of 25 events will be featuring the exciting format which was used for years as a World Series of Poker tournament.

Competition Provides Golden Opportunity for Players

The scheduling of Partypoker’s Powerfest events is quite deliberate when compared to the lineup provided by the WCOOP. Their list of planned major events looks something like this:

• Sept 2, $2,100 No-Limit Hold’em 8-Max ($1 million)
• Sept 2, $215, Sunday Million NLH ($1 million)
• Sept 4, $10,300 NLH High Roller ($1 million)
• Sept 5, $25,000 Pot-Limit Omaha High Roller ($1 million)
• Sept 6, $2,100 HORSE ($256,000)
• Sept 8, $2,100 8-Game Mix ($250,000)
• Sept 9, $5,200 NLH High Roller ($1 million)
• Sept 9, $530 Sunday Warmup NLH ($750,000)
• Sept 9, $109 Half-Price Sunday Million NLH ($1 million)
• Sept 12, $25,000 8-Max High Roller NLH ($2 million)
• Sept 14, $22 DeepStack NLH ($100,000)
• Sept 16, $5,200 Main Event NLH ($10 million)

It’s clear that Partypoker has grown tired with being perceived as second banana to PokerStars and this event is a huge indicator of that. It will be interesting to see how this plays out for Partypoker, but as with most forms of competition between giants in an industry, the winner is almost always the customer.

It’s seldom a bad thing to have competition in place to push the limits of a site like Partypoker. While the site puts on major events every year, for many PokerStars remains the more recognizable brand.

For example the exciting MILLIONS Grand Final in Barcelona held earlier this year was the biggest poker tournament ever hosted on the European continent, yet those events generally are overshadowed thanks to PokerStars’ close relationship with the World Series of Poker.

The latter is heavily covered by ESPN, but the growth of the sport of poker around the United States as well as concerted efforts at massive events, could prompt another huge network to work closely with different, previously uncovered events.