In May, players on PartyPoker will have a chance to race their way to a share of $1 million. This week, the site announced one of the richest rake races ever held online. The announcement comes just a few days before the third running of the PartyPoker Monthly Million.
First place in the PartyPoker $1 Million Rake Race will take home $20,000 in cash plus a $20,000 prize package to the upcoming World Series of Poker (WSOP) in Las Vegas. Players will have the entire month of May to generate as many Race Points as possible. These are fundamentally different than PartyPoints and depend on the rake taken in a real money cash game hand. Race Points are calculated by taking the total rake per user per hour and dividing it by the total number of hands played over the same time period. That figure is then multiplied by the number of raked hands played. A special multiplier is also used and is determined by a player’s rake divided by the total number of hands played.
It’s not as complicated as it sounds. Let’s say a player generated $5 in rake in an hour over a total of 100 hands. If only 80 of them were real money hands, then the number of rake points equals (5/100) x 80 x Multiplier. The multiplier in this case is three and can be derived by checking out the $1 Million Rake Race landing page on PartyPoker. The leader board will be updated at least once an hour so players can see where they stand. The runner up at the end of May will take home $18,000 plus a $20,000 WSOP package, third place pockets $15,000 and a WSOP package, fourth place earns $10,000, and the top 3,000 players will finish in the money.
The fourth through tenth place finishers plus the players who land in 50th, 100th, 300th, 500th, 750th, and 1,000th will win a $5,500 WSOP Experience prize package. These consist of one $1,500 buy-in to a side event of a player’s choosing, seven nights’ hotel accommodations, and travel for two. In addition, winners of the package have the ability to experience one diversion during their stay, including trips to nearby attractions such as the Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam, Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and Red Rock Canyon. Alternately, players can cruise the famed Las Vegas Strip in a helicopter or rove the desert in a dune buggy.
PartyPoker.com spokesman Warren Lush told Poker News Daily, “The Million Dollar Race is the biggest rake race for cash game players that we have ever offered on PartyPoker. The rewards are great, with the top ten winning WSOP packages and cash, but it has been structured to offer significant rewards all the way down to 3,000th place. This is just one of many great promotions that we have in the pipeline in the coming months.”
The PartyPoker WSOP qualifier takes place on Fridays at 18:10 ET and Saturdays at 14:15 ET. It awards a $12,000 Main Event package for every 20 players who enter and comes with a buy-in of $640. Several entries to it are up for grabs as part of the Million Dollar Rake Race, as the 1,250th, 1,500th, 1,750th, 2,000th, and 2,500th players will win their way in. Daily Satellite and Daily Final entries will also be given away.
This weekend marks the third running of the PartyPoker Monthly Million. The $1 million guaranteed prize pool tournament occurs on the first Sunday of every month and boasts a buy-in of $640. Players start with 20,000 chips and blind levels last 20 minutes each. The price of poker begins at 25-50 and then grows to 50-100 and 100-200. A five minute break takes place after every three levels and antes kick in starting at Level 6. A Mega Friday Satellite is one of the last chances players have to win their way into the high-stakes monthly tournament on PartyPoker. The $55 buy-in contest kicks off at 17:00 ET and guarantees at least 20 seats into the Monthly Million. Players can satellite in for free by participating in country specific freerolls and PartyPoints qualifiers.
According to traffic ranking site PokerScout.com PartyPoker is the fourth largest worldwide with a seven day running average of 4,450 cash game players. It is the second largest that does not accept U.S. players, trailing only the iPoker Network, which includes rooms such as Boyle Poker, CD Poker, Chili Poker, Mansion Poker, Paddy Power, Titan Poker, Tony G Poker, and William Hill. PartyPoker is owned by Party Gaming, a publicly traded company on the London Stock Exchange.
