The World Poker Tour and the Borgata in Atlantic City have a partnership that spans nearly 20 years. It began with the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa signing up to be one of the first stops on the second season of the still-new World Poker Tour. They’ve weathered many storms between them, the latest being the coronavirus pandemic that shut the Borgata’s physical doors and limited live poker for much of 2020.
The two partnered for online poker during the pandemic. Borgata operates its online poker room on the partypoker platform, and the World Poker Tour has long associated itself with partypoker. It wasn’t a stretch to put some WPT action online for poker players in New Jersey. And now, with BetMGM as a part of the family, WPT online tournaments can reach even more players.
In September of 2020, the inaugural WPT Online Borgata Series took place for New Jersey players. The partnership with partypoker delivered a series of 11 tournaments, though without a Main Event.
In December of last year, they partnered again to host the WPT Online Poker Open, a Main Event with a $3,500 buy-in and $1M guarantee. Just after Christmas, the tournament attracted 395 entries. And the $1,264,000 prize pool paid out 64 players, with winner Soheb Porbandarwala collecting $239,820 and membership into the WPT Champions Club.
https://twitter.com/WPT/status/1344332822467624962?s=20
They’re ready to do it again.
WPT Online Borgata Poker Open
Both BetMGM and the World Poker Tour announced the tournament, which will be a part of a series. The full partypoker US Network Online Series will run on the partypoker-affiliated online poker sites in New Jersey September 12-21. And it will culminate in the WPT Online Borgata Poker Open Main Event September 19-21.
The winner of the Main Event will become another member of the Champions Club with his or her name etched on the Mike Sexton WPT Champions Cup. This will be an event on the main tour of Season XIX.
The tournaments will be available on partypoker NJ, BetMGM Poker, and Borgata Poker. All three sites share player pools, so players are able to choose the setup they prefer for the site itself. The requirement for players is that they are located within the borders of New Jersey when playing.
There will be satellites on all three sites starting at $5, though there will be at least one major freeroll as well.
WPT CEO Adam Pliska noted, “We are very happy that WPT’s strategic move in online tournaments has been bolstered by one of the longest and most prestigious casinos on the tour.” BetMGM VP of Gaming Matthew Sunderland echoed that sentiment, while also recalling the success of the last Main Event in their partnership.
Side Events TBA
The bulk of the series is not yet available on the sites or on any schedule. The one that is already open for registration is the Main Event:
-Buy-in: $3,200 + $300-Tables: 8-max-Reentries: unlimited-Late registration: through Level 14Cap: 3,500 players-Starting stack: 1M chips-Levels: 20 minutes-Day 1: Sunday, September 19 at 5pm to play 16 levels-Day 2: Monday, September 20 at 7pm to play to final table of eight-Day 3: Tuesday, September 21 at 7pm to finish the event
There is already a massive freeroll set for August 29 at 4pm. The prize pool consists of $50K worth of series tickets, with the top 10 finishers winning Main Event seats. The 11th through 20th place finishers each receive a $535 tournament ticket. Ultimately, the top 215 players win at least $10 in tournament money. The freeroll maxes out at 3,500 players, and there are already 270 in it.
https://twitter.com/WPT/status/1425140208979255298?s=20
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