888 has won an informal bidding process to host a private ten-month long tournament series for posters of the Two Plus Two poker forums.
The tournament series, named “BANJO!” (for “Best of All New Jersey Online!”), will involve a standard raked $15 tournament on the last Sunday of every month, starting on February 23.
In addition to the normal prize pool in each tournament, the top 20 finishers will be awarded points based on finish position. Nine monthly tournaments will run, and the top nine finishers in the leaderboard will go on to take place in a special “November Nine” SNG.
The major operators in New Jersey were contacted to make offers to host the tournament series. Ultimate Poker and 888 both made commitments: Ultimate Poker agreed to take all rake taken from the tournament series, double it, and add it to the prize money in the November Nine. 888 offered to add $1000 to the final prize pool, plus an extra $10 for every registrant over 100 in any of the monthly tournaments.
Though the two offers were considered comparable, 888 was picked as it was deemed “the overall better tournament site,” said tournament organizer “Brilliant27.”
“The software is better on 888, and they have synchronized breaks, which is huge,” he added.
PartyPoker, the leader in the New Jersey market, did not place a bid (they “never even contacted me, and we received no offer from them,” writes the organizer). WSOP showed initial interest, but ultimately declined. It is not clear if Borgata, a skin on partypoker’s New Jersey network, was involved in the process.
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This is an abridged version of an article previously published on pokerfuse PRO.
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