Following a two-year hiatus, 888poker brought back its Knockout Games Series, an online poker festival fully dedicated to the knockout tournament formats, including the increasingly popular progressive knockouts.
The operator should be quite pleased with the turnout and results so far, as the series got off to a hot start with a number of events already in the books.
The Series kicked off with a $109 buy-in PKO opening tournament, which guaranteed $125,000 in payouts. The event drew 955 unique players who made a total of 267 rebuys among them, which meant the tournament broke the guaranteed prize pool with a bit of the rake going back to the players.
Two other smaller events launched on the same day, featuring $16.50 and $44 buy-ins, both comfortably beating their guarantees and attracting big crowds of PKO format lovers.
The Series went into its second day with several 8-handed PKO tournaments all attracting hundreds of players, with the $11 buy-in Event #5 being the biggest of the day, featuring 777 unique entries.
Day 3 was dedicated to the Super Knockout format, with another three events played out with great success. The tournaments drew in more than the expected crowds and broke all the guarantees.
Six additional PKO tournaments ran over the following days, with buy-ins ranging from $16.50 to $109, and tens of thousands of dollars paid out in prizes and bounties.
The event that highlighted the Series so far was Event #22, the $150,000 Tune-Up PKO, which featured a $160 buy-in, a massive prize pool, and something extra on top. While the eventual winner won over $10,000 in prize money plus just as much in bounty money, it was a whole different type of win that marked this tournament.
The lucky player who managed to eliminate 888poker ambassador Chris Eubank Jr, who eventually busted out in 97th place, received a $13,000 WSOP package, allowing them to play this year’s Main Event in Las Vegas and pay for his travel and accommodations on 888’s dime.
Monday, May 2, was dedicated to PLO knockout tournaments, which saw lower numbers of entries. The three PLO knockouts failed to meet the guaranteed prize pools, being debatably the least successful tournaments of the Series so far.
At the time of writing, 30 events have been completed and these have produced nearly $800,000 in prize money.
What’s Left on the Schedule?
In total, the Knockout Games Series will feature 41 events, with 30 of those already behind us, but some big ones still on the schedule.
Days leading up to Sunday will see 888poker offer three separate knockout tournaments each day, with buy-ins between $16.50 and $215 for those games, and guaranteed prize pools all in the $10,000 to $30,000 range.
To finish things off, Sunday will bring some major action, with two of the Series’ biggest events scheduled for the final day of the festival.
Event #43 – $300,000 Main Event PKO will be, by far, the most attractive event of the Series, featuring a $215 buy-in which can also be won every single day leading up to the tournament through a variety of freeroll and buy-in satellite tournaments.
For those lacking the proper bankroll to play this $215 event, the final tournament of the Series brings a cheaper version of the Main Event, featuring a $55 buy-in and a $50,000 guaranteed prize pool.
It is safe to say that there is tons of hot action waiting for us in the coming days at 888poker, with the two versions of the Main Event guaranteed not to disappoint in terms of turnout and the eventual payouts.
