The Party Poker marketing machine has been firing on all cylinders over the past few weeks, cleverly using executive hints and word of mouth speculation to prepare the market for a new promo that they promised would be the biggest ever.
They’re probably right, because the *official* announcement on the “PartyPoker.com Monster” showcases what is probably the biggest free-roll tournament in the short but exciting life of the Internet poker sector.
The Gibraltar-based company claims that its “PartyPoker Monster” will enrich up to 40 000 cash winners over the next 11 months. There will be thirty two $100 000 weekly Freerolls and eight monthly $1 million tournaments, followed by a Grand Finale with a massive $5 million prize pool that is expected to keep growing. Billed as the “behemoth of freeroll poker tournaments – a beast that will change the game forever,” there is some substance to the marketing hype in this one.
It marks the first time any single online poker site has offered prizes on this scale and on such a continuous basis, and ther organisation behind the effort is clearly considerable and will have to be sustained right through to June 2007 when the Monster Grand Finale is scheduled.
But before that destination is reached, thousands of pokerheads will get a piece of the monster. Party Poker will host Daily Monster Qualifying Tournaments, Monster Jackpot Tables and Players PartyPoint qualifiers from which six players will ultimately rise to the Monster Grand Finale.
To take part in this Monster promotion, players must first enter a qualifier and then progress through four different rounds. PartyPoker.com is currently hosting the first of 32 Monster Weekly $100,000 freerolls.
Each week players will play for $100,000 and the chance to move on to one of eight Monster Monthly $1,000,000 Freerolls. Players can qualify through several channels, all of which are explained on the firm’s website.
“We have seeded the first multimillions of prize money, but that is only the beginning,” said Warren Lush, PartyPoker.com spokesman. “The prizes start huge and then just get bigger and bigger; the more people who play, the bigger the Grand Final prize pool will be – the biggest in history. Nothing can stop the Monster – it just keeps growing. We just don’t know how big it will get!”