Today at 12:00pm, the first event in the MILLIONS North America – the $1,000 + $100 MILLIONS Open tournament – will begin its final phase. From a total of 1,231 entries, there are just 68 players left competing for a share of the big prizes – the tournament is already relatively deep into the money. Action will begin in level 25 – blinds 300,000/600,000 with a button ante of 600,000 and will continue all the way until the end of the event. The tournament is relatively shallow to start Day 3, with a chip average of just 30bb – although this is heavily influenced by the fact that almost 20% of the remaining field is playing a sub-15bb stack to start the day. If history is any guide, there should be a slew of quick eliminations today that will deepen the overall tournament and move things much closer to a […]
Poker
The Super High Roller continues at noon
Today at 12:00pm, 15 experienced and exceptionally talented poker players will gather at Tables 39 and 40 in the Tournament Hall here at Playground Poker Club for the Day 2 restart in Event #3 in the MILLIONS North America – the $25,000 + $500 Super High Roller event. Play will resume in level 13 with blinds at 35K/70K and a 70K button ante and will continue throughout the day until a champion emerges to claim the $373,000 top prize. The chip leader to start play on Day 2 is Darren Elias, who starts with 8,815,000 (126bb) – an exceptionally deep stack in a tournament whose average stack is currently 45bb. That’s not to say Elias is unopposed, however – every player in the field has a ton of skill, and the player in 2nd – Viktor Blom – has the right mix of skills and a deep stack to be […]
Chips are bagged and ready for Day 3
Day 2 of the MILLIONS Open brought out a field of 392 players, each with their sights set on the $210,000 first-place prize. But there remained a long way to go before reaching that ultimate goal, as they had to make it through 12 levels of action today before even having a chance at the big money. The top 143 finishers in this event made it to the prizes, and that was the focus for many players this afternoon- making it past the money bubble. There was a frenetic pace to the early levels – players were taking risks to run up their stacks and that led to a steady stream of bustouts that quickly brought the field down to less than 200 players. At that point, the tournament staff balanced the tables accordingly and a large part of the day was played 8-handed. This slight change in format meant […]
Darren Elias finishes strong
Instead of playing the last 15 minutes, it was decided that the rest of level 12 would be saved for tomorrow. Play resumes at 12h00 on 2 tables, with Darren Elias (8,815,000) and Victor ”Isildur1” Blom (6,755,000) leading the pack. These two players have been there before. Both are very aggressive when given the chance to play a commanding stack, and will surely create some sparks. Click here to see the seating chart for the Day 2 restart. This post was published first on this Playground Event Blog: MILLIONS North America 2018.
A second Jackpot today!
As if the Secondary Bad Beat Jackpot wasn’t enough, the PLO Bad Beat Jackpot has now been hit as well – that makes two jackpots in a single day! The hand was played at about 5:00pm this afternoon on a $5-$5 PLO table – the (locally) famous Table 13. The Jackpot amount at the time of the hand was $43,486, which will be divided as follows: 40% to the loser of the hand (Jackpot winner), 20% to the winner of the hand (plus the pot), 20% shared between the other players at the table, and a final 20% shared between all other PLO players in the room at the time. The dealer button was on Seat 8 and there were the two blinds plus a straddle to $10 by the players in Seats 1 to 3. The player in Seat 6 opened the action with a raise to $30. Seat […]
Festival time is also BBJ time!
It’s almost a cliché that when a major festival arrives at Playground, jackpots start to hit. Once again, however, this has proven to be true! The Secondary Bad Beat Jackpot was won this afternoon at 1:40pm on Table 23 in the cash game section of the Tournament Hall. Table 23 was full (9 players) when the fateful hand was dealt. With the dealer button on Seat 6 and a straddle to $5 from the player in Seat 9, Caterina M, in Seat 1, was the first to act preflop and she chose to raise to $15. The player to her immediate left, Eric M, thought for a while and then re-raised enough to chase everyone, including the player who straddled, from the hand. With action back on her, Caterina chose to go all-in for $101 total, and Eric instantly made the call – it was only about a third of […]
Starting today – Event #3, the Super High Roller
It’s the beginning of a new week at Playground Poker Club, and with it comes the largest buy-in event in the MILLIONS North America – the $25,000 + $500 Super High Roller! Considering the players that have been camped at the tables all weekend, this is certain to be a great event with a field of the highest caliber. As is the case with all of the other side events in the MILLIONS, this tournament has a $1,000,000 prize pool guarantee. The formula for today will be familiar – play on Day 1 will continue through 12 levels of 40 minutes each today, and players are permitted one entry and one re-entry any time until the end of the break following level 9. Players will start with 1,000,000 tournament chips. As always, we’re going to have wire-to-wire coverage of the event here on the Playground Event Blog, and both My […]
Coming up – MILLIONS Open Day 2
Today at noon (12:00pm EDT) will see the restart of Event #1 in the MILLIONS North America, the $1,000 + $100 NL Hold’em MILLIONS Open. A grand total of 392 players will be taking their places at the tables at that time, every one of them vying to make it into the money of the tournament. The prize pool was released overnight, and just over 1/3 of the remaining players will achieve that goal – 143 places will pay in the tournament, with a min-cash of $2,700. But just as everyone is looking to cash in the event, everyone is equally trying to WIN the event, which comes with a much bigger prize – $210,000! There’s a long way to go between the restart at noon and the bubble being reached – not to mention someone claiming victory, which will wait for tomorrow. Nevertheless, there are a few players who […]
Chips in the bag on Day 1B
The Open has got the MILLIONS North America off to a fast start, as another massive crowd made it out for Day 1B. Day 1A was very well attended with 586 participants, and today’s flight brought out even more runners with 645 total entries. This event permitted re-entries during the first nine levels of play, and 133 players put a second bullet into today’s flight as they tried to accumulate as much of the 645,000,000 chips in play as they could with the hope of bringing a monster stack forward to tomorrow’s Day 2. Between the two starting flights, 245 players opted to give it a second try, helping this event easily surpass it’s $1,000,000 guarantee. When the late registration and re-entry period ended at the end of level 9, there was a total of 1,231 entries from both starting flights. As the field bagged chips at the end of […]
On to High Roller Day 2
At 12:00pm today, the 26 players who qualified for Day 2 in the $10,000 + $300 MILLIONS High Roller event will take their seats to resume play in this massive tournament. The players will begin the day spread across 4 tables in the Tournament Hall, but as an 8-Max event, the field will balance down to 3 tables after just two eliminations. Later on the agenda will be a full redraw at 16 players remaining, and again when the final table is put together with 9 players remaining. All of this is on tap for today, as this is a 2-day tournament that will play down to a winner today. Today’s action will also be live streamed from the get-go – meaning that starting at 12:30pm (to account for the 30 minute security delay), you’ll be able to follow all of the action on the feature table via My partypoker […]
Next in the MILLIONS Open: Day 1B
Today at 12:00pm will mark the beginning of the 2nd of two Day 1 starting flights in Event #1, the MILLIONS Open. Day 1A was a huge success with over 580 entries having taken a seat in the tournament, and there’s no reason to believe that today’s flight should be any smaller – in fact, if history is any guide, today’s flight will be at least that size – if not larger! Play yesterday continued through 12 40-minute levels, with late registration and re-entries permitted though the first 9 levels, and the plan for today is identical. If there are any changes, it will be in the registration patterns of players, who may rely less on late registration than on Day 1A. A total of 130 players were seated as alternates yesterday, and although we constantly strive to seat everyone as quickly as possible, a short delay was unavoidable in […]
MILLIONS Open: Day 1A wrap-up
The MILLIONS North America got off to a flying start today with a massive turnout for Day 1A of the MILLIONS Open. This three-day event brought out an impressive field of 586 entries for its first starting flight that included 112 re-entries. The tournament staff showed their professionalism by filling open seats as quickly as possible to make sure that all of the 130 alternates made their way into the field with as little delay as possible. One of the highlights of the afternoon was certainly when Mike Sexton took a moment to address the crowd. Everyone was happy to hear from one of the most recognizable men in poker today, as he congratulated both the Playground staff and partypoker LIVE team on winning the GPI American Poker Awards event of the year for last year’s edition of the MILLIONS. Mike is one of the players who bagged at the […]