The governor of Nevada ordered all casinos in the state shut for 30 days in an unprecedented move to try to slow the novel coronavirus’ deadly spread across the United States. As you can expect, this means all the poker rooms in the state have shut their doors and cardrooms all across the country are following suit.
Considering that the virus can live on different kinds of surfaces for up to days at a time, it’s probably a good decision not to be in a cramped table passing around chips and cards with a bunch of strangers.
But while the live poker market grinded to a halt, the online poker sphere is booming. Online cardrooms are registering large increases in player traffic and several sites have announced large tournament series. PokerStars also held the largest Sunday Million in history for the tournament’s 14th anniversary.
Biggest Sunday Million in History
Even before the novel coronavirus, PokerStars announced it was going to hold a gigantic Sunday Million for its 14th birthday. PokerStars announced a $12.5-million guarantee, meaning they’d need to draw more than 62,000 players to reach the guarantee.
The largest Sunday Million was last year’s 13th-year anniversary, which drew 61,342 players. That record was obliterated this year. Nearly 87,000 players signed up for the first day of the Sunday Million and a few more thousand signed up at the start of Day 2 for a total of 93,016 entries.
That means the total prize pool exceeded $18.5 million. This is by far the largest Sunday Million in history. Action is still underway, so the champ has yet to be determined.
Live Poker Goes Into the Matrix
Partypoker’s Poker Masters series has more in common with golf than its name. It also gives a jacket to its champion, but these are purple. The event is usually a live gathering of the world’s top players, but now they’re moving it online.
The series will run from April 12 to 26 and will have a whopping $15 million in guarantees. There are going to be 30 events with buy-ins that start at $10,300 and top out at $51,000. That $51K price tag is for the main event, which has a $2-million guaranteed prize pool.
Head on over to the partypoker blog for a full schedule.
The World Series of Poker also moved its circuit events online after cancellations. The WSOP launched the WSOP Super Circuit Series on March 14 and the 14-event series will run until the end of the month. On March 31, the WSOP will finish off the series with a $1,000 NLHE Grand Finale High Roller 6-Max tournament. Head on over to the WSOP Super Circuit Series for a full schedule. The series is available for players in Delaware, Nevada and New Jersey.
Series Popping Up Everywhere
Other online cardrooms around the internet are also launching a number of series. Sportsbook launched a $12-million guarantee series on March 18 and it’ll keep running until April 6. There are more than 150 different tournaments and multiple $1-million guarantee events.
Sportsbook also joined the fray, but in a smaller version. They’re running a $750,000 guaranteed tournament series throughout March. They’re also running daily freerolls with up to $15,000 in prizes.
As everyone remains home and starts turning to online poker for some kind of outlet, we’re bound to see more series popping up.