A representative from partypoker released a preliminary draft of the schedule for the second New Jersey Championship of Online Poker (NJCOP II) on Two Plus Two this week in order to seek feedback an everything from buy-in levels to game types to tournament structures. NJCOP II will run April 16th through April 26th and will be composed of 32 events with $1 million in guaranteed prize pools.
One of the most interesting aspects of the schedule is the presence of two “Player’s Choice” events, the first of which will kick off NJCOP II. Both will cost $100 and will feature a $20,000 guaranteed prize pool. These are not “Player’s Choice” by name only – the events really will be chosen by the players. The initial tournament selection will be narrowed down via an in-forum poll during which players can nominate certain tournament characteristics:
Games / Type
No-Limit Hold’em
Fixed-Limit Hold’em
Pot Limit Hold’em
Pot Limit Omaha
Pot Limit Omaha H/L
Fixed-Limit 7-card Stud
Players Per Table
Heads-Up
Six-Max
Nine-Handed
Ten-Handed
Tournament Variation
Unlimited Rebuys/Add-on
Single Rebuy & Single Add-on (Cubed)
Single Rebuy (second chance)
Bounty
Freezeout
Ante-up
The top three nominated choices for each category will be included in an e-mail poll that will go out to all pokerplayer New Jersey players. Today is the last day for the nomination round.
The latter two categories have some flexibility; choices do not have to be made specifically from the above lists. If enough people want seven-handed tables, that’s fine. Players per table can be no greater than ten, though. And the partypoker rep has encouraged creativity when it comes to the third category – the choices given are just examples she provided.
The NJCOP II Main Event will be held on April 26th and will cost $200 to enter with a $150,000 guaranteed prize pool.
From the looks of the draft schedule, there will be two events held every weekday at 6:00pm and 7:00pm (Eastern time, obviously, as this is New Jersey). Saturdays will feature four tournaments starting at 3:00pm, 5:00pm, 6:00pm, and 7:00pm, while Sundays will see five tournaments run, starting at the same times as Saturdays with the fifth tournament beginning at 8:00pm.
Most of the events are No-Limit Hold’em (note to Player’s Choice voters – don’t pick No-Limit Hold’em) with a handful of other game types mixed in. Within the No-Limit Hold’em events, there are variations like six-max, heads-up, bounty, re-buy and add-on, and deep stack. Total buy-ins, including fees, range from $50 to $1,000.
We are in the early evening of the final day for nominations for the Player’s Choice events and so far, the response has been less than tepid. Certainly, the New Jersey-only Party Borgata Network is small compared to most world-wide networks, but at least right now, players are more concerned with the reliability of the software than in choosing the format for a couple tournaments.