3: barrels of a tangy 888 flavour including a new $55 buy-in $1m GTD multi-table tournament, a new game in Pik’em Poker, and a partnership with Poker After Dark
After a mump and a moan about partypoker stealing its customers by deploying ‘old school tactics’, 888Poker have taken a leaf out their adversary’s playbook by introducing a Progressive Knockout Tournament (PKO) with a guarantee that’s going to feel more like peeling a butternut squash than a tangerine.
While PokerStars and partypoker hurling cobs of corn at each other these past 18-months, you would imagine the top tier of management at 888Poker would have been flapping arms like a scarecrow in the wind, but that hasn’t been the case.
The last time I touched base with the 888Poker hierarchy they weren’t behaving like someone about to drop dead on the kitchen floor while all around them people continued to fry eggs, oblivious, to the mass of 8s twitching nervously by their Air Max 97s.
Quite the contrary.
The vibe was a positive one, particularly when I raised the name of partypoker. Nobody hissed. Nobody threw a bedpan full of piss in my face. Nobody did anything other than comment that the resurrection was good for the game.
I saw nothing but smiles.
I didn’t think it was right then.
I don’t think it’s right now.
I know that Sun Tzu stressed the importance of subduing the enemy without fighting, but the same man also said that you should appear strong when you are weak.
You don’t drop to #3 in the World Rankings from a position of strength.
So it’s nice to see that 888Poker has a brush in one hand, and a tin of paint in the other. It’s time for a makeover. It’s time to get off the bench, and step into the arena. It’s time to get blood on their hands.
The God of the Arena
With Poker 8 still sitting underneath the Christmas Tree, 888Poker will introduce Progressive Knockout Tournaments (PKO) for the first time on the client during a new festival called The God of the Arena.
PKO tournaments have fast become the little red corvette of poker tournaments, with the format improving the odds that the recreational players will log off with a few bob in their account.
The new series runs Thursday 11 October through Sunday 14 October, and the star attraction will be a $55 buy-in Main Event carrying a mount Olympus looking $1m Guarantee. It’s an unusual move for 888Poker to play the guarantee card, but hey, it seems to be working for Waters, Yong and co.
Here is the schedule.
Thursday 11/10
$16.50 buy-in, $20k GTD Mini 8-Max
$109 buy-in, $30k GTD 8-Max
$215 buy-in, $50k GTD 6-Max
Friday 12/10
$16.50 buy-in, $20k GTD Mini 8-Max
$55 buy-in, $15k GTD 6-Max
$109 buy-in, $30k GTD 8-Max
Saturday 13/10
$5.50 buy-in, $15k GTD Micro 6-Max
$16.50 buy-in, $20k GTD Mini 8-Max
$109 buy-in, $30k GTD 8-Max
Sunday 14/10
$22 buy-in, $30k GTD 8-Max
$55 buy-in, $1m GTD Main Event
$320 buy-in, $100k GTD 8-Max
888Poker Partners With Poker Central
When it comes to the fight, one area that 888Poker has a vastly superior arsenal than the competition is its network. 888Poker has slapped the three snowmen on the Super High Roller Bowl (SHRB), amongst other events, and this week 888Poker execs pressed the Poker Central speed dial button.
The pair will join forces to run a special 888Poker Poker After Dark Week week commencing 4th November, and two lucky 888Poker players will get the opportunity to compete.
888Poker will be turning two dried flowers into bleeding hearts when they hold a $1 buy-in event on the 14 and 21 October at 20:00 (GMT), for UK players only, with the winner of each event securing a $14,000 Vegas package, including a $10 buy-in for a Sit & Go featuring the likes of Chris Moorman, Eli Elezra, Maria Ho, Bill Klein and Eli Elezra.
The winner will bank $50,000, and the runner-up doubles his or her money.
Mr Moorman, who is a Vegas resident these days, will also act as tour guide for the qualifiers.
888Poker Launch Pik’em Poker
888Poker is also about to launch a new game
Pokerfuse heard on Marvin’s grapevine that a game called Pik’em Poker will debut by the end of the month. No details exist on the game. 888Poker has done no marketing or promotional work.
The last game debuted by 888Poker was Flopomania, back in August 2017. By all accounts, the game was a hit, but was still pulled from the lobby in February 2018, and thus far, it seems to be doing a pretty good Loch Ness Monster impression.
Your guess is as good as mine as to what type of game it will be. Given the name, my shot in the dark is a format of Irish Poker.
888Poker Ambassador News
Finally, a few pieces of news from the 888Poker Ambassadors.
Dominik Nitsche celebrated his 28th birthday this week. It’s crazy to think about his standing in the game for one so young. Nitsche has earned $15.5m playing live tournaments, including winning a World Poker Tour title and four World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelets. Nitsche has also won $4.6m playing online, and I imagine a few bucks playing online and live cash games.
If you would like to shake hands with the online legend, Chris Moorman, and don’t want to try and win that Poker After Dark package, then why not nip over to Nashville on October 19. Moorman will be making an appearance alongside Greg Raymer at a charity event called The Music City Shootout, looking to raise money for Mother to Mother, a charity that raises money to buy baby gear for underpriviliged parents. The buy-in is $300, and the winner receives a $10k buy-in for the 2019 WSOP Main Event and the shot of $8-9 million squid.
Finally, Parker ‘Tonkaaaa” Talbot will head into the God of The Arena festival on to form after taking down the $1k Thursday Thrill on PokerStars. Talbot beat 298 in the PKO tournament, banking the $28,059.32 first prize, and taking down roughly the same amount in bounties, making it by my reckoning, one of the top five scores of his career. Tonkaaaa’s personal best is $109,015.71 for finishing runner-up to GripDsNutz in the $215 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em 8-Max at the 2016 Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP).
