One Million Dollars Baby
Just a week after the news broke that Dusk Till Dawn, Europe’s premier cardroom, had teamed up with partypoker to shake up the UK poker scene, details of the first event under the new partnership have been revealed.
In May 2015, DTD and partypoker will be running the Grand Prix Million. A $120 buyin NLHE event with numerous starting Day 1’s both live and online, but wait for it, here’s the Hollywood moment……
A $1,000,000 Guaranteed Prize Pool
Now, how about that for a knockout blow to the rest of the UK poker scene ? As other tours are managing their guarantees and generally taking a more cautious approach, Rob Yong and the team at DTD put their necks on the line once more.
Let’s just pause for a moment and put these details into a little perspective. The Grand Prix concept has been run at DTD since September 2010. A low buyin event, targeting the recreational poker player. The first event had a £50 buyin with a £40,000 guarantee. At the time, that broke the record for number of entrants with over 800. Multiple Day 1’s both online and live allow for the maximum number of players possible to have the opportunity to scoop a decent payday with some excellent guaranteed prize pools.
Guarantees for these events have steadily grown over the years, with the last Grand Prix held in December 2014 having a £110 buyin with a £200,000 guaranteed prize pool. That required 2,000 entries for the Nottingham based poker venue to cover the guarantee. The Grand Prix Million in May is going to need 10,000 entries to achieve the same. Even the record entries for any of the previous Grand Prix’s held was only 4,932 (September 2013). Can you believe we actually just said ‘only’ 4,932 ?
A $1m guaranteed event of this nature is normally reserved for the online majors, and then you’ll never find a buyin as low as $120. Headline guarantees are pretty much an everyday occurrence within the poker market, whether it be a few thousand for a twenty pound comp down your local casino, or one million for the upcoming UKPC Main Event, but a guarantee of this size for the Grand Prix Million at this level of buyin, simply takes your breath away.
It’s out there and achievable for any recreational poker player in the UK to either qualify or buy in direct to play. Satellites will run on partypoker from as little as 1c. That’s right, even less than a penny.
The first 1000 satellite winners will also receive the coveted ‘Golden Chips’. If you make the final table of the Grand Prix Million with your golden chip entry, the guys at partypoker and Dusk Till Dawn will give you a bonus of $25,000.
If you are yet to open a partypoker account, now is the time to do it, and get yourself into the satellites that will be running from Monday February 16th. You’ll get a matched deposit bonus up to $500 and also have access to all of the satellites on offer for every Dusk Tlll Dawn event going forward.
The Grand Prix Million is going to be another of those events that you really have to be there, and for the recreational poker players in the UK, this is an absolute must to qualify for.
At The Pokeriety, we’ve recently launched our ‘Target Tourneys’, where we pick out some great events for recreational poker players that are affordable, yet offer great value. This can be due to the structure, added value, guarantee or just simply that it’s a fun or must event attend.
I think we’ll struggle not to include the partypoker Dusk Till Dawn Grand Prix Million on the list for this year. Hopefully you’ll see some Pokeriety Patches make the final table. Click on the banners and get yourself signed up to partypoker today.