In the state of Nevada, players have been readily participating in the World Series of Poker, one of the most anticipated tournament series of the year. In New Jersey, players could participate in a major series as well, when not being able to travel to Nevada for WSOP gaming. The New Jersey Online Championship was expected to be a big hit in the East, taking place from May 31st to the 29th of June. The series would overlap the WSOP and ended up having mixed results, both good and bad.
The good points include the NJOC offering $250,000 in guaranteed prize money and beating their guarantees by 25% or more. Of the guaranteed prizes, almost half had prize pools of 50% or higher than the original guarantee. A total of $310,000 in prize money was awarded during the online poker series in New Jersey.
However, despite the good points, there are also definite lows to the series. Thirteen scheduled events were closed during the NJOC due to low turnouts. Of all the tournaments that took place, 14 had overlays, which means operators had to pay the difference to meet the guaranteed prize money set. Four of the overlay tournaments had over 20% needed to be added to the prize pool.
There are three notable events of the NJOC which have garnered the most buzz by players. Event #11 was a $2,500 GTD R&A tournament which ended up scoring a prize pool of $6,734 which is an increase of 169%. The event had $100 rebuys and price point.
Event #23 was the $500 buy-in NLHE re-entry event which had a prize pool of $25,000 guaranteed. This event saw 47 players competing which pushed the guarantee to $27,900. This was the largest prize pool of the series. Event #44 was the most successful event in the larger buy-in categories with a $10,000 prize pool and $200 buy-in. The format of the tournament was NLHE with re-entry, which ended up offering $13,690 in prize money.
The series was highly promoted in New Jersey, hoping to be a success with online players. In the end, the series was a mixed bag of increased prize pools and cancellations due to low player turnout. This series goes to show that online poker cannot be predictable and while some events and tournaments will do well, others may fail.
Players definitely showed up to compete and gave their best to try and earn a prize as well as bragging rights for earning a win. At the same time, the WSOP of Nevada was hosting the same tournament options for visitors and residents in Nevada. The Nevada version offered $535,000 in prize money, a much higher guarantee than the New Jersey series, however Nevada would expect more players as the WSOP would be taking place at the very same time.
When compared to the New Jersey version, Nevada was generally more successful than the east coast counterpart. However, this is no surprise due to the fact that tens of thousands of people are located in Nevada due to the World Series of Poker. The WSOP made it easy for players attending the tournament series to log online and take part in tournament gaming.
Many top pros as well as amateurs took advantage of online game play while visiting Nevada for the tournament series. Players could log on from their hotel, in-between WSOP events or even during game play. Mobile play was offered for the very first time in Nevada this year during the WSOP, so many players used their cell phone during tournaments to go online and play, giving Nevada more success with online game play during this time frame.