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PartyPoker Bonds with eSports in The Big Deal

Written by Jennifer Newell
Last updated on
Jennifer Newell

Online poker is popular. Esports is more popular. These are facts.

There are some poker players who cross over into the esports world – and vice versa. There have even been some attempts by online poker sites and tour operators to forge relationships with esports players and/or entities. Most have not taken hold in any long-term fashion, but the outreach is typically positive.

PartyPoker just did something along those lines, and it seems to have gone well.

Reaching Beyond the Summit

Many in poker may not be familiar with Beyond the Summit. The company seems to be the esports version of the PokerGO Studio in Las Vegas. Beyond the Summit was originally founded in 2012 to focus on casting for DOTA 2, a popular online video game. (DOTA represents the original Defense of the Ancients game.)

As esports grew, Beyond the Summit did, too. It became a full-fledged DOTA 2 studio and then one that works with numerous games and grands. BTS now creates esports content recognized all over the world.

PartyPoker reached out to BTS to do a bit of a crossover event. And PartyPoker put up a $50,000 prize.

Kind of a Big Deal

The action was a livestream on Twitch. In exchange for PartyPoker putting up the $50K, the action went to its Twitch channel, PartyPoker.tv.

PartyPoker and BTS extended invitations to some of the world’s top streamers, one that pitted 48 of them against each other at online poker tables. And Maria Ho and Joey Ingram represented poker through the BTS Twitch studio in Los Angeles.

The freeroll gave each player the chance to “reenter” for free three times before an official elimination. And the structure was one allowing many breaks and quickly-escalating blinds, since the entire event was mostly for entertainment.

The list of participants included some well-knowns from the poker world, some of whom were also PartyPoker ambassadors.

–Jaime Staples

–Jeff Gross

–Anatoly Filatov

–Bryan Paris

–Matt Staples

–Courtney Gee

–Jonathan Van Fleet

–Hristivoje Pavlovic

–Ebony Kenney

PartyPoker provided a full list of all 48 competitors by their Twitch channel names and with links to those channels.

Of course, the cash was a big incentive for players to participate, but they all put something else up for grabs. When one player knocked an opponent out of the tournament, they would be able to raid their viewers.

Final Table Play

No matter which livestream one might have been watching, it was a fun game.

Prior to the final table, Elias “ZerosPoker” Gutierrez busted Jaime Staples and Ebony Kenney in one massive hand.

And Courtney “courtiebee” Gee busted in 10th place for $1,250.

That delivered a final table mixed with poker pros and gamers.

The final table itself offered $41K in prizes, and “MaximusBlack” took charge to oust the first player from that group. Jeff Gross then busted in seventh after a solid showing via his ambassadorship.

Fast play quickly led to four-handed action, at which point “MaximumBlack” busted to “AKT_ZeroS.” Sadly, his musical stylings went with him.

Niklas “Nikkymouse” Ehrenholz, a German ambassador for Natural8, then took out ZerosPoker to make it to heads-up play.

Ehrenholz had a massive chip lead over “BroughtCabbage” and didn’t hesitate to take those chips into the winner’s circle.

Ultimately, PartyPoker issued these payouts to the final table finishers:

1st place:  NikkyMousee ($12,000)

2nd place:  BroughtCabbage ($9,000)

3rd place:  AKT_ZeroS ($6,000)

4th place:  MaximusBlack ($4,500)

5th place:  OmarsComing ($3,500)

6th place:  Hei KID ($2,500)

7th place:  JeffGross ($2,000)

8th place:  Khezuyep ($1,500)

 

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