GVC subsidiary Party Poker is putting big money – $20 million – behind the latest edition of its Powerfest series, which will feature 301 tournaments with combined guarantees worth tens of millions of dollars.
It’s the biggest investment in a Powerfest yet, company spokesmen advised Tuesday.
Tom Waters, the md at Party Poker said in a company statement that the next edition of the popular event will include new headline competitions, including three $1 million guaranteed editions of the Title Fight, a $2 million charity event and eight phased tournaments covering a range of buy-ins.
This will be the fifth Powerfest; the series was launched in February last year with just $5 million in guarantees, followed by the second edition in April 2016 due to demand, with an enhanced $7.8 million in guaranteed prize pools.
In September last year Party Poker ran another edition, boosting the guarantees to $10 million, and in January this year a further Powerfest carrying $11 million in guaranteed prize pools was launched.
This year’s iteration will be spread over a little more than two weeks starting May 7, and will offer poker fans a range of buy-ins from $.50 to $25,000, the latter being entry into the Super High Roller scheduled for May 17.
In a generous gesture, Party Poker is donating the $500 registration fee on each entry to charity, and if there are more than 100 entries, the company will top that off with an additional $50,000.
The Powerfest culminates in four main events, each with its own buy-in again titled Featherweight, Middleweight, Heavyweight and High Roller.
As usual there will be an abundance of satellites enabling punters to compete for free buy-ins to Powerfest events.
Waters says that the structure and investment in the next Powerfest will make it possible for players to compete in at least one tournament a week – excluding main events – that will have a million dollar guaranteed prize pool.