Online poker room partypoker has reworked the qualifying structure for its weekly flagship partypoker MILLION tournament. It has eliminated the myriad of satellites and while there are still extended paths to qualification, the route from nothing to the MILLIONS seems more straight-forward now.
partypoker has gotten rid of the $22 Mega Sats as well as the partypoker Mini and partypoker Micro. Multiple buy-in entry points still exist, they just don’t come from all over the map.
For those who want to try to play for free, the bottom of the ladder starts with freerolls. There are 14 freerolls every day, each starting on the hour. Winning players in those advance to the $2.20 partypoker MILLION Phase 1.
Phase 1 tourneys are also hourly for much of each day and award the winners entry into the $22 Phase 2.
With both Phase 1 and Phase 2, players are automatically entered into the next available satellite, so people need to be aware of that in case hey are unable to play in the following tournament. It’s not like some satellites where you win a ticket and can choose which sat in which to play.
Those who make it through Phase 2 will go on to Day 1 of the MILLION. Day 1s run twice daily Monday through Saturday and four times on Sunday. All Day 1s feed into the weekly final, Day 2.
Every step leading up to Day 2 can be entered directly with cash or tournament dollars, for those who wish to skip the early satellites. Day 2 is the only one that must be played into, as it’s actually part of the MILLION tournament.
Players can only enter any individual Phase 1, Phase 2, or Day 1 once, but they can enter as many separate instances as those as they would like. If a player qualifies for the same tournament multiple times (say, the same Day 1 from more than one Phase 2), their largest chip stack will be carried forward.
The next partypoker MILLION Final Day – or Day 2, of you will – is this coming Sunday, January 26th, at 14:00 server time. There are currently 89 players who have qualified at the time of this writing.
The next Day 1 starts tonight at 18:00 server time. Right now, there are just 19 players registered. Players can buy-in directly for $215 or, of course, satellite in via Phase 2. Blind levels are 10 minutes long and this portion of the tournament will end after Level 20. As this is the actual start of the MILLION and no longer a satellite, everyone with chips remaining after Level 20 will advance to Sunday’s final.
Day 2 levels will be 12 minutes each; the start times, blind levels, and split days were designed to try to let those who run deep finish at a reasonable hour.
