Pala Adds Freerolls, Big Overlay At Stars, And Party Hosts The Biggest Tourney
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Of the 14 tournaments tracked, the state’s online poker operators guaranteed over $200,000 but combined to hand out roughly $13,000 in overlays.
Another important development this week had to do with market hierarchy, as the $40k Guarantee at partypoker/Borgata/MGM produced a larger prize-pool than the $50k guarantee at PokerStars NJ. However, its accomplishment might be fleeting.
Borgata-party-MGM has a good day
The $40k Guarantee
The Borgata/partypoker/MGM online poker network hosts a $40,000 guarantee tournament every Sunday. The tournament has a $215 buy-in, $15 of which goes to tournament fees. That works out to a seven percent rake.
With a $44,000 prize-pool, the $40k guarantee was the largest tournament (by prize-pool) in the New Jersey market on Sunday. That’s an impressive achievement considering PokerStars NJ’s Sunday Special guarantees $50,000.
MTT | Start Time | Buy-In | GTD | Entries | Prize-Pool | Overlay |
SUNDAY $40K GTD NLH [3X RE] + BONUS | 5:00pm | $215 | $40,000 | 220 | $ 44,000 | – |
One reason for the strong turnout could be a bonus the network has been offering to the winner of the tournament: a $3,500 WPT seat.
As New Jersey poker pro-Katie Stone explained, these bonuses could go a long way towards boosting turnout in other tournaments.
“This Sunday was sadly the last Sunday they were awarding the winner of the $215/$40k with a $3500 WPT entry to the WPT Borgata Main event that starts next week,” Stone said. “Borgata/Party is the only site in NJ that does this kind of thing and I wish the other sites were able to do something similar.”
More signature events at Borgata/party/MGM
The front end of the network’s recently revamped Sunday schedule is performing fairly well, but more changes may be on the horizon considering the performance of the 7:30 Turbo and 8:00 PLO events. Both events continue to struggle (the Turbo didn’t run this week) despite relatively small buy-ins.
MTT | Start Time | Buy In | GTD | Entries | Prize-Pool | Overlay |
SUNDAY STARTER $3K GTD [2X RE] | 4:00pm | $55 | $3,000 | 56 | $3,000 | $200 |
Sunday $535 – $20K GTD [2x RE] | 6:30pm | $535 | $20,000 | 36 | $20,000 | $2,000 |
DAILY $10K GTD [2X RE] | 7:00pm | $109 | $10,000 | 127 | $12,700 | – |
$3,000 GTD Turbo [2x RE] | 7:30pm | $55 | DID NOT RUN | |||
Sunday PLO Bounty – $750 GTD | 8:00pm | $35 | $750 | 22 | $750 | $266 |
partypoker offers $25 to new players. Sign up here.
PokerStars signature event takes a hit
The $50k Sunday Special
PokerStars is home to the largest weekly guaranteed tournament in the New Jersey market, which also happens to be the least expensive. The Sunday Special at PokerStars NJ features a $200 buy-in and a $50,000 guarantee, making it $15 cheaper and $10,000 richer than its competitors’ flagship Sunday events.
The tournament is raked seven percent, as $186 of the $200 entry fee goes to the prize pool, and $14 to tournament fees.
This past week, the Sunday Special had a huge $8,336 overlay.
MTT | Buy-In | GTD | Entries | Prize-Pool | Overlay |
Sunday Special $50K GTD (Reentry) | $200 | $50,000 | 224 | $ 50,000 | $8,336 |
More signature Sunday events from PokerStars NJ
In addition to the Sunday Special, PokerStars NJ hosts two other major Sunday tournaments with guarantees of $10k and $15k respectively.
The high-roller continues to perform well, while the Sunday Warmup continues to offer a decent overlay.
MTT | Buy In | GTD | Entries | Prize-Pool | Overlay |
$500 Sunday High Roller (Reentry) | $500 | $15,000 | 46 | $21,620 | – |
$50 Sunday Warmup (Reentry) | $50 | $10,000 | 203 | $10,000 | $763.50 |
One tournament we don’t track that is popular with New Jersey regulars is the nightly $100 tournament, which gets a guarantee boost on Sundays, and is a favorite among NJ grinders.
“Their nightly $100 tournament bumps up from a $10k to $12k guarantee on Sunday’s which is nice,” Stone explained, adding that, “Stars overall Sunday tournaments continue to be the largest guarantees in NJ.”
Sign up for PokerStars NJ here
Pala tournaments continue to offer the best value
The tournaments may not have big prize-pools, but Pala’s tournament schedule has the highest overlays (by percentage) in the New Jersey market.
As it’s still in beta, Pala Poker is only offering a daily schedule at this point.
The daily schedule is highlighted by two $10 buy-in ($9 + $1), $250 guaranteed events.
Start Time | Tournament | Buy-in | Entries | Prize-pool | Overlay |
8:00 pm | Nightly $250 Gtd NLHE Turbo | $10 | 16 | $250 | $156 |
8:30 pm | Nightly $250 Gtd (6-Handed) NLHE Turbo | $10 | 16 | $250 | $156 |
As if there wasn’t enough value in its substantial overlays, Pala has also added two daily freerolls to its tournament schedule.
They are:
- a $50 freeroll at 4 PM
- a $100 freeroll at 9 PM
Wsop.com-888 have overlays across the board
Each of the WSOP/888 tournaments we track had an overlay this week.
According to Stone, if the network wants to turn this around it could do with a top to bottom overhaul.
“I really wish WSOP would just come at us and surprise us all with a total revamp of their offerings and customer service issues,” Stone said. “How about awarding seats to a WSOP 1k this summer to the winners of the Sunday $215/$40k starting in January?”
The $40k Warrior
Every Sunday, the WSOP.com and 888 network host “The Warrior,” a $215 buy-in tournament with a $40,000 guarantee. The rake for the Warrior is the same seven percent that you’ll find at other sites.
The Warrior dropped below 200 entries this past week, which means the tournament had a small overlay.
MTT | Buy-In | GTD | Entries | Prize-Pool | Overlay |
$215 The Warrior $40K GTD (Reentry) | $215 | $40,000 | 198 | $ 40,000 | $400 |
Other signature Sunday events at 888/WSOP.com
WSOP.com/888 have two other big tournaments on its Sunday schedule, both offering guarantees of $10,000.
Both tournaments offered a little extra value this past Sunday.
MTT | Buy In | GTD | Entries | Prize-Pool | Overlay |
$50 Warrior’s Opening Strike (Reentry) | $50 | $10,000 | 215 | $10,000 | $217.50 |
$100 Fierce Warrior (Reentry) | $100 | $10,000 | 104 | $10,000 | $536 |