MILLIONS Online, the record-holder for the world’s biggest online poker tournament, is set to return for its fourth run in September, much earlier than its usual slot in December.
Last year, the $20 million guaranteed event with a buy-in of $10,300 drew 2109 total entries across four Day 1 flights to amass a prize pool of over just $21 million. This made it the second-largest online poker tournament in history, falling just short of its own record set in 2018 which saw a prize pool of almost $22 million.
While the exact dates for the 2020 edition have yet to be confirmed by partypoker, according to the site’s new live satellite promotion, MILLIONS Online this year has been scheduled to take place between September 1 and 30.
It is very likely that MILLIONS Online will once again carry the same mammoth guarantee of $20 million.
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Last week, partypoker unveiled its new flexible satellite package promotion dubbed MILLIONS Passport, a package valued at $11,000 which can be won via phased online satellites running daily on partypoker.
The Passport covers tournament buy-ins, accommodation and travel expenses and can be used to enter any MILLIONS event, including MILLIONS Online. It is valid for one year from the day the Passport is won.
MILLIONS Online 2020 Will Feature $5300 Buy-in
This year, MILLIONS Online will return to its original $5300 buy-in, much like the other MILLIONS events.
The first two MILLIONS Online in 2017 and 2018 had a $5300 buy-in, but last year the operator doubled its buy-in to $10,300 to keep it in line with the 2019 MILLIONS Live tour that had the buy-in for each of its Main Events priced at 10,000 in the local currency.
While the $10,300 buy-in MILLIONS Online event had no difficulty breaching its mammoth $20 million guarantee, the live MILLIONS stop received fewer turnout, forcing the operator to return to the $5K buy-in.
Since the Passport package is valued at $11,000, players that win the Passport package will also be able to use an additional $5300 to re-enter the tournament or play a side event with the same buy-in. In addition, players will also get $400 in tournament dollars.
Passport Satellites Running on partypoker
Passport satellites are already underway at partypoker with buy-ins ranging from $1.10 to $22. These qualifiers are running throughout most of the day, and lead to a semi-final Phased satellite with an entry fee of $109.
The $109 buy-in Phased satellite guarantees 10 $10K VIP packages every Sunday, that can be used to enter any MILLIONS event including the online version. Players must qualify for the final phase as these cannot be bought into directly.
Partypoker is also running daily freerolls guaranteeing hundreds of seats to the $1.10 and $2.20 qualifiers.
Each of these satellites including the freerolls has the newly implemented real name policy, meaning players must use their real names in place of their screen names. This has been rolled out to all online “Day 1s, Satellites, Phases and Feeders” to partypoker Live events as part of the operator’s “ongoing drive to make the site the fairest online poker destination.”
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MILLIONS Online 2020 to Coincide with Big Tournament Series
The new slot for MILLIONS Online is worth noting. September is usually the biggest month on the online poker calendar as many big operators host their flagship online tournament series around this time.
PokerStars hosts WCOOP (World Championship of Online Poker)—one of the biggest online poker tournament series in the world, partypoker either runs Powerfest or KO Series, 888Poker runs XL Inferno, GG Poker schedules its Good Game Series during that time and so on.
This year will be no different.
Scheduling the biggest guaranteed online poker tournament to overlap with the big tournament series makes sense for the operator, and there is a high chance that the 2020 edition could beat 2018’s record and register the biggest ever prize pool.
As we wait for more details to be released, we can assume that the tournament will follow the same format as the previous ones—featuring multiple Day 1 flights with the final day to be played out after a week.
The official dates for MILLIONS Online are likely to be announced in the coming days, but the event has been confirmed to run in September.
