PartyPoker MILLIONS LIVE 2019 Schedule Takes Shape
Every one of the three major online poker sites in the world – PokerStars, 888poker, and PartyPoker – maintain a schedule of live tournament series. It connects the online poker world with the live circuit, giving poker players the chance to win entries into live events via online qualifiers and giving them reasons to stay loyal to a particular brand.
PartyPoker LIVE has grown in recent years, and the addition of its MILLIONS high-roller series began to deliver a more well-rounded set of tournaments at each stop. And with the hiring of John Duthie as PartyPoker LIVE president in early 2017, the tour was almost guaranteed to improve, considering Duthie’s much-acclaimed success with the European Poker Tour for PokerStars.
Nearly finishing two years with the PartyPoker LIVE team, Duthie is ready to kick off a new season of live events under the MILLIONS umbrella for 2019 in Brazil.
https://twitter.com/partypokerlive/status/1078274446782271488
Five Events Scheduled
The PartyPoker LIVE MILLIONS series offers tournaments geared toward high-roller players but open to anyone who can qualify online. They consist of Hold’em and Omaha events, all with guaranteed prize pools in the range of $5 million to $10 million.
The short but impressive season will get underway in mid-March in Brazil, a new location for all poker players on any circuit. The May event will take players to the familiar Playground Poker Club in Canada and then King’s Casino in the Czech Republic in August, and the MILLIONS World stop will take place in the Bahamas. And the last event of the year will again be online.
https://twitter.com/partypokerlive/status/1080923524859084801
MILLIONS South America at Copacabana Palace Hotel in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Dates: March 15-24
Main Event buy-in: $10,300
Prize pool guarantee: $5 million
MILLIONS North America at Playground Poker Club in Montreal, Canada
Dates: May 22-27
Main Event buy-in: CAD$10,300
Prize pool guarantee: CAD$5 million
MILLIONS Europe at King’s Casino in Rozvadov, Czech Republic
Dates: August 10-18
Main Event buy-in: €10,300
Prize pool guarantee: €5 million
MILLIONS World at Baha Mar, Bahamas
Dates: November 15-24
Main Event buy-in: $10,300
Prize pool guarantee: $10 million
MILLIONS Online
Dates: TBD
Main Event buy-in: $10,300
Prize pool guarantee: TBD
While the details of the MILLIONS Online event are yet to be determined or announced, the website noted that it will be patterned after the success of the recently concluded MILLIONS Online. That event not only had a $20 million guarantee for the $5,300 buy-in tournament, the actual prize pool exceeded the promise when it landed at $21,385,000. It became the largest online tournament of its kind, and while the 2019 event will have double the buy-in, it is likely that the guarantee and many months of satellite opportunities will allow PartyPoker to rival last year’s results.
Notable Season 3 Changes
What followers of the series will notice is that the main events have all been increased to 10,000 in various currencies per location, and there are no reentries allowed. There will also be no multiple starting flights, and late registration will be more limited than in the past.
The schedules at each location are also more condensed, which allows each series to wrap in seven days or less. Per Duthie, this is a chance to give the hosting casinos to add their own tournaments to the series for local players and focus on traveling players more heavily during the week of PartyPoker LIVE tournaments.
All main events on the 2019 partypoker LIVE MILLIONS Season 3 schedule are $10K buy-in Single Day 1 Freezeouts. https://t.co/k59zUY26XM
— PokerNews (@PokerNews) January 3, 2019
Duthie noted that, as with other recent changes at PartyPoker, all changes are a result of listening to players on the tour and those who want to play in the future. “Our MILLIONS Season 2 tour has been very successful,” said Duthie, “however we pride ourselves on listening to player feedback and continually improving our offering to ensure we provide the best live tour in the world.”
Larger LIVE Schedule
Since the vast majority of poker players cannot afford to buy in to the MILLIONS LIVE events and may not qualify for their entries and travel, there are many other options. One need only look at the regular PartyPoker LIVE schedule to see more than a dozen other live tournament series.
The first official stop on the tour actually began on December 27, 2018. The Grand Prix Dublin Main Event was a €120 buy-in with a €100K guarantee and is still gathering players; it will ultimately finish on January 6, 2019.
https://twitter.com/partypokerlive/status/1078340240711012352
Grand Prix Germany at King’s Casino in Rozvadov, Czech Republic
Dates: January 6-14
ME Guarantee: €500K
WPT Russia at Casino Sochi in Sochi, Russia
Dates: January 13-27
ME Guarantee: ₽90 million
World Cup of Cards at Playground Poker Club in Quebec, Canada
Dates: January 20 – February 6
ME Guarantee: CAD$500K
Dusk Till Dawn Grand Prix at Dusk Till Dawn in Nottingham, UK
Dates: January 20-27
ME Guarantee: £150K
Grand Prix Punta del Este in Punta del Este, Uruguay
Dates: February 19-23
ME Guarantee: not listed
WPT Barcelona in Barcelona, Spain
Dates: March 3-17
ME Guarantee: €3 million
WSOP Circuit Germany at King’s Casino in Rozvadov, Czech Republic
Dates: March 14 – April 1
ME Guarantee: €1,103,500
WSOP Circuit UK at Dusk Till Dawn in Nottingham, UK
Dates: March 31 – April 14
ME Guarantee: £1 million
WSOP Circuit Russia at Casino Sochi, Russia
Dates: July 14-28
ME Guarantee: ₽60 million
WSOP Circuit Montreal at Playground Poker Club in Quebec, Canada
Dates: August 18 – September 2
ME Guarantee: CAD$2 million
WSOP Circuit Rio at Copacabana Palace Hotel in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Dates: September 15 – October 1
ME Guarantee: not listed
WPT UK at Dusk Till Dawn in Nottingham, UK
Dates: September 22 – October 6
ME Guarantee: £1.5 million
WPT Montreal at Playground Poker Club in Quebec, Canada
Dates: October 20 – November 3
ME Guarantee: CAD$3 million
