As the solution to the ongoing Covid-19 situation continues to remain uncertain, researchers are reporting to expect long-term effects in society caused by the novel flu-like virus.
The practice of social distancing in efforts to curb the spread of the illness may continue to affect the live poker community for the foreseeable future.
Unibet Poker Moves All 2020 Events Online
Considering public health as a priority, Unibet Poker recently announced its full transmission of live-based events to their independent online platform for the rest of the year. Three Unibet Open Online Series are already scheduled and set to run in place of the cancelled live events. The first Unibet Open Online will kick off in a few days beginning May 1st with the Fall and Winter Unibet Open Onlines to be held in September and December respectively.
Unibet Head of Events Nataly Sopacuaperu said in a statement, “We fully understand the impact to our partners and the land-based venues. However, as a priority we must consider not only the health of our customers, but also the difficulty for recreational players with regards to planning trips around uncertainty.“
Head of Poker Kristoffer Bergvall also reassured the players that the application is “better equipped than ever” to manage the switch from “IRL to URL” adding, “We are all in agreement that this is the best way to ensure the consistency and reliability that people have come to expect from our product, and the online room is better equipped than ever to house our land-based fans.“
The upcoming Unibet Online Series will feature a €1,000,000 prize pool guarantee over a total of 132 events throughout the three week duration. The Series highlights are the €1100 buy in with €200K GTD on May 24th at 19:00CET, and an exclusive Champions Showdown to battle other tournament winners for a cut of €5,000. Satellites for as low as €0.50 are already currently available in the poker client for a chance to grab a seat to the anticipated events.
Similar to other poker brands, the shift from live games to the online scene can be heavily expected as it becomes a more viable option with regards to the present-day situation. Series after series are lined up on various platforms ready to jump in on the booming online poker action. Poker enthusiasts around the globe can at least look forward to a busy time throughout this relatively chaotic experience.
Following Success of the Poker Masters Online Series, Partypoker to Host Super High Roller Bowl
$20M Super High Roller Bowl
Poker Central just dropped the news a few days ago that its premier poker tournament, the Super High Roller Bowl (SHRB) is coming to the partypoker platform this May 23rd – June 1st. The announcement came right after the success of its most recent Poker Masters Online (PMO) series also held on partypoker, where the guaranteed prize money of $16.5M was doubled when the tournament concluded with a total prize pool of $35.4M. The series attracted a massive turnout with over 124 unique competitors recording at least one result throughout the scheduled events.
This year’s Super High Roller Bowl will feature a whopping $20M in guarantees with one player being awarded the SHRB championship ring. The series is set to run a total of 28 two-day High Roller events ranging from a $10,000 buy-in up to as high as $100,000. The Super High Roller Bowl Online, an 8-Max, two-day freezeout tournament will serve as a concluding event with a guaranteed prize pool of $3,000,000. A buy-in of $100,000 + $2,000 will be posted with the series champion (the player who collects the most points in the first 27 events) receiving a complimentary entry to the prime event.
“After a successful Poker Masters Online tournament, we knew we had to continue the momentum with an online Super High Roller Bowl series in lieu of a live tournament this year,” said J.R. McCabe, Chief Business Officer of Poker Central. “Our partnership with partypoker will allow us to continue to deliver what our fans love – live poker from the best players in the world.”
Partypoker Managing Director, Tom Waters, also added, “In this time of increased caution, partypoker’s goal is to help fans and players in the poker industry continue to partake in the excitement of the game.”
Alexandros Kolonias wins Poker Master Online Series
With the latest Poker Masters Online Series, Alexandros Kolonias emerged to be the overall series winner recording an incredible 11 cashes for a total of $1,266,296 in prize earnings. The Greek pro claimed the coveted Poker Masters purple jacket and an additional $50,000 cash prize after beating notable players in the industry including SHRB Australia and Russia winner Timothy Adams, Global Poker Index No. 1-ranked Alex Foxen, SHRB IV winner Justin Bonomo and partypoker ambassador Jason Koon.
| Poker Masters Online Championship Standings | ||||
| Name | Earnings | Points | Cashes | |
| 1 | Alexandros Kolonias | $1,266,296 | 1,191 | 11 |
| 2 | Artur Martirosian | $1,278,974 | 1,048 | 9 |
| 3 | Linus Loeliger | $1,511,818 | 1,037 | 3 |
| 4 | Timothy Adams | $1,043,882 | 861 | 11 |
| 5 | Ali Imsirovic | $1,035,696 | 857 | 9 |
| 6 | Andras Nemeth | $974,987 | 807 | 8 |
| 7 | Pascal Lefrancois | $1,049,887 | 782 | 6 |
| 8 | Pauli Ayras | $968,048 | 748 | 6 |
| 9 | Alex Foxen | $792,677 | 736 | 7 |
| 10 | Steve O’Dwyer | $1,005,654 | 732 | 6 |
“I was up against a group of top-notch competitors during Poker Masters Online, so winning the tournament and getting my hands on that Purple Jacket was a huge honor,” said Alexandros Kolonias, winner of the PMO Tournament.
“I was really enjoying playing the Poker Masters Online events. They were great events and partypoker once more proves why it’s the No. 1 poker site. I am also exhausted, it was two long weeks with two events every day and it came down to the last day. I was doing really well in the Main Event as well but then lost it, unfortunately. In the 6-max I was left with 1.5bb with 50 players left and no more re-entries. I felt like it was almost over but then I doubled up three times and was back in the game, and went all the way to win it. I didn’t want to look at the points exactly but I knew that if I won the 6-max I was most likely going to win the leaderboard so I played to win.”
As the series were played using real names requiring players to play under their true identity and not an alias, winnings are instantly related to the player’s overall standing and performance. This feature of the partypoker platform also enables viewers to tune in on the action with more excitement and higher interest. In addition, ten of the final tables in the approaching tournament series will stream exclusively on PokerGO and Poker Central will award free annual subscriptions to the streaming platform to competitors who play an event.
