Party Poker´s PowerFest the Place for Overlays

Of the three online poker series currently underway – Stars´ SCOOP, 888´s XL Inferno and Party´s PowerFest – only two of them are hitting their guarantees.

When it was announced PokerStars, 888Poker and Party Poker were going head-to-head-to-head with three major online poker tournament series this month, if left players with a bit of a dilemma. Despite taking no chances with its tournament guarantees, PokerStars´ SCOOP had the most valuable schedule, while 888Poker gave its players the opportunity to freeroll into many of the XL Inferno events.

That left Party Poker – who took a gamble (considering the opposition) and not only increased its PowerFest series guarantee from $11 million to $20 million, but also packed 197 events into fifteen days of action. One week into the trio of tournament series, PokerStars is unsurprisingly smashing its guarantees and 888Poker is just about holding its own. Party Poker´s gamble appears to have backfired.

PowerFest Starts Okay, but Goes Downhill

Signs that Party Poker´s PowerFest series was going to disappoint were not apparent over the first couple of days of the series. Of the twenty-four events on the opening day, only two $109 buy-in tournaments failed to meet their guarantees, and Party Poker could easily cover those losses with the tournament entry fees from the more successful events.

However, over the next few days, the number of tournaments failing to reach their guarantees each day increased. On both Tuesday and Wednesday, three tournaments failed to reach their guarantees. On Thursday and Friday, that number increased to five. Probably of more concern to Party Poker was the fact it was not just the high buy-in events that were missing their targets, but low buy-in events as well.

The weekend was a disaster for Party Poker. On Saturday, thirteen of the nineteen PowerFest tournaments failed to meet their guarantees and yesterday saw the site´s biggest financial loss yet – a $132,000 overlay in the million dollar guaranteed PowerFest Event #152. A further seven events also cost Party Poker money, and this time there were fewer successful events to cover the losses.

More Overlays to Come at Party Poker this Week

Party Poker´s ambitious PowerFest schedule continues this week. There are seven events guaranteed for $100,000 before next weekend, and multiple low buy-in tournaments that will need in excess of a thousand entries for the events to be profitable. Incredibly, there are more four events next weekend with guaranteed prize pools of $1 million. There could be carnage.

With regard to tonight´s action, the majority of the events have a progressive KO format and relatively low guarantees, so it is hard to forecast if any of these will overlay. Of the remaining schedule, the $109 buy-in PLO event at 8:00pm (all times GMT), the $11.00 buy-in NLHE Freezeout at 11:00pm and the $109 buy-in 6-Max event (also at 11:00pm) are the most likely candidates for an overlay.

Looking ahead to next weekend, it is difficult to see how Party Poker will be able to compete with PokerStars for its higher buy-in events. The world´s leading online poker site has seven events next Sunday with guarantees of $1 million or more, and while it is possible for players to play at multiple sites simultaneously, it is hard to conceive many high rollers wanting to play seven (or more) tournaments at PokerStars and four more at Party Poker.

One Event Definitely Won´t Overlay

One event in the PowerFest schedule that definitely will not overlay is the $25,500 buy-in Super High Rollers event tomorrow evening at 8:00pm. Thirteen players have already registered for the $2 million guaranteed event including Sam Trickett, Dusk till Dawn´s Rob Yong, Spanish coaching superstar Juan Pardo Dominguez and former world #1 online tournament player Joao Paulo Simao from Brazil (best known as INeedMassari on PokerStars).

Players with an existing Party Poker account can log into the client and follow this game live tomorrow evening. Players who do not yet have an account with Party Poker can [geolink href=”https://www.pokernewsreport.com/party-poker-bonus-code”]download the software for free[/geolink] and create an account using the Party Poker bonus code [bonuscode room=”partypoker”] to be eligible for a first deposit bonus up to $500 – not enough to enter tomorrow night´s Super High Rollers event, but certainly enough to take advantage of some of the overlays in Party Poker´s PowerFest series.