The 2015 World Series of Poker may be over for all but nine players, but the WSOP is going to try to keep the momentum going by launching a new online poker series specifically designed for those whose bankrolls were way too small to even think about traveling to Las Vegas to compete in the WSOP. Starting this coming Sunday, July 19th, WSOP.com will host the Minier-Fest, a sixteen event tournament series with tiny buy-ins and over $15,000 in guaranteed prize money.
There will be two tournaments each day from July 19th through July 26th; unlike some other tournament series around the internet, there is not necessarily any sort of relationship between the two tourneys on any given day. Weekday tournaments begin at 5:30pm and 6:30pm, while weekend tournaments start at 2:30pm and 3:30pm.
Buy-ins are as low as one, lonely dollar and range up to $20 for the final No-Limit Hold’em Re-buy and Add-on event with a $5,000 guaranteed prize pool. Most buy-ins $2, $3, or $5.
The Minier-Fest will be held on both the Nevada and New Jersey versions of WSOP.com; the two sites are not joined on a network, so they are running their own, separate tournaments for people in their respective states. The schedules are exactly the same, though, aside from New Jersey being three hours ahead of Nevada.
WSOP.com hosted a similar, expanded tournament series in February called Mini-Fest. Buy-ins were the same, but Mini-Fest had a dozen more events than does Minier-Fest. Mini-Fest also had a leader board, awarding prizes to the top ten overall points earners. Minier-Fest, unless things change, will not have any extras, just tournaments.
Minier-Fest is clearly not the most exciting tournament series, particularly because there is no added incentive to play in any of these events over regularly scheduled tournaments, but low stakes players (I am one of them…well, I would be if I lived in Nevada or New Jersey) may enjoy having a slate of tournaments that are more their speed with guaranteed prize pools.
2015 WSOP.com Minier-Fest Schedule
Event # | Type | Date | Time | Buy In | Guarantee |
1 | NLH (R&A) | Sunday, July 19 | 2:30pm | $10 | $2,500 |
2 | NLH | Sunday, July 19 | 3:30pm | $10 | $1,000 |
3 | NLH (R&A) | Monday, July 20 | 5:30pm | $2 | $500 |
4 | NLH | Monday, July 20 | 6:30pm | $5 | $750 |
5 | NLH Knockout | Tuesday, July 21 | 5:30pm | $5 + $5 | $500 |
6 | PLO (R&A) | Tuesday, July 21 | 6:30pm | $2 | $100 |
7 | NLH (R&A) | Wednesday, July 22 | 5:30pm | $3 | $700 |
8 | NLH | Wednesday, July 22 | 6:30pm | $1 | $100 |
9 | NLH | Thursday, July 23 | 5:30pm | $3 | $250 |
10 | NLH 6-Max | Thursday, July 23 | 6:30pm | $5 | $500 |
11 | NLH Turbo (Re-Entry) | Friday, July 24 | 5:30pm | $5 | $500 |
12 | NLH (R&A) | Friday, July 24 | 6:30pm | $2 | $300 |
13 | NLH (R&A) | Saturday, July 25 | 2:30pm | $5 | $1,500 |
14 | NLH (R&A) | Saturday, July 25 | 3:30pm | $1 | $200 |
15 | NLH Turbo | Sunday, July 26 | 2:30pm | $5 | $1,000 |
16 | NLH (R&A) | Sunday, July 26 | 3:30pm | $20 | $5,000 |
