The World Series of Poker continues a stunningly successful series of online tournaments; the latest headline is a $300,000-plus win in the online championship for Nicholas Baris of Utica, New York. WSOP may get all the headlines, so it’s easy to forget the other options for online players.
This is especially true in New Jersey, where BorgataPoker.com continues to challenge the WSOP even as its World Series events play out.
First, the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa has scheduled its live action Borgata Summer Poker Open for July 9 to July 26, right during the heart of the WSOP.
It’s not as high-stakes as the WSOP Main Event, of course, but the Summer Poker Open is 21 main events, along with a schedule of secondary events. These include a $1 million guaranteed opener on July 9 and another $1 million guaranteed championship event starting July 21.
Why should online players care?
Well, these are precisely the events that BorgataPoker is running online satellites for. And as usual, BorgataPoker is starting off its qualifiers for as little as a $5 buy-in.
These daily $5 tournaments can win you a $45 seat for a daily satellite to Event 1 of the Summer Open, with satellites that run through July 10. Winners get a $600 buy-in seat for the live tournament in Atlantic City.
Satellites for the championship event are a little more intense. They start with daily $45 buy-in tournaments running July 11 through July 20. These qualifiers can win you a seat to one of four $400 Super Satellites to the championship event. Winners get a $2,700 buy-in to the Summer Open Championship.
Here’s the schedule for the $400 Super Satellites:
- Saturday, July 13 at 7:40 p.m.
- Sunday, July 14 at 7:40 p.m.
- Saturday, July 20 at 7:40 p.m.
- Sunday, July 21 at 7:40 p.m.
Now keep in mind, playing satellites is like playing any other kind of tournament. There’s a prize pool and winners get to keep any money they earn as in any other tournament. The difference is that a percentage of players also get free buy-ins to the two big summer poker open events.
For example, in the Super Satellites for the Summer Open Championship, one in eight players win a $2,700 seat to the championship. So, if 80 players play, then 10 win seats. If 160 players play, 20 win seats, and so on.
It may not be the WSOP in Vegas, but BorgataPoker.com makes its own excitement in New Jersey.
