The 2020 Caribbean Poker Party tournament is moving online for this year as a direct result of the pandemic. As the live tournament cannot be played, Poker Party decided to step in and to move the event online, and it has led to an upsurge in interest in the tournament as well as a huge prize fund being added as well.
The 2020 CPP Online is going to run with 15 tournaments, and there’s a combined prize fund of $10 million in place, and that’s seriously impressive. However, $5 million of that is all focused on the Main Event, but that does also come with a larger buy-in than some may be used to.
The Main Event has two different day 1s. It costs $5,300 to buy in, and you are provided with 1 million chips to take part in the tournament. But then there’s the blind structure that they have introduced into the tournament. Not only is there a 20 minute clock, but the blinds are set at 2,500 and 5,000.
In order to progress to the second day, you need to be left with chips on the table when the 18th round is concluded. On day 2, the clock moves up to 30 minutes, but that’s only for the first 10 levels. After that, the clock goes up to 40 minutes for the remainder of the tournament.
Tournaments with a Lower Buy-In
But what if that figure of $5,300 is too high for you to get into the tournament? If that’s the case, then there are other tournaments where the buy-in figure is going to be significantly lower. The mini main event is set at $530 while there’s another option known as the micro main event where that figure is at only $55. However, the structure when it comes to the blinds remains the same even though the levels are going to be in line with the buy-in figure.
But then, let’s look at the prize pools for those lower tournaments. The mini main events are going to have $500,000, which is still impressive. The micro main event has a prize pool of $150,000, and that is a healthy prize fund considering how little it costs to take part.
At the same time, there will be a series of satellite tournaments taking place that are in line with this main tournament. PartyPoker are planning on running a number of them at the same time, and they will still offer a reasonable prize fund for all participants even though it’s not part of the CPP tournament.
Poker has had to change due to Covid-19, but at least the big online names are kind of coming to the rescue by creating these special tournaments that allow the main players to still feel as if they are taking part in the regular schedule.
The fact that they are providing such impressive prize funds does show how seriously they are taking it all, and who knows how different things may look in the future when live tournaments can take place in the flesh once more. Perhaps a real blend and unification of online and live tournaments could be the way forward.