Party Pokers PokerFest Mini Series vs.

WSOPs Online Championship Series

Buy
In

Name

Date

Entries

GTD

Overlay

Profit

Day

Pokerfest #1 $250 6max Ante Up GTD

1/16 19:30

$1.00

115

$250

$103.50

Prize Pool

$146.50

-$136.15

Thu

Pokerfest #2 $750 Turbo Triple Chance

1/16 20:30

$2.00

132

$750

$237.60

$512.40

-$488.64

Thu

Pokerfest #3 $500 PLO Turbo

1/17 19:30

$2.00

158

$500

$284.40

$215.60

-$187.16

Fri

Pokerfest #4 $1000 Turbo Bounty

1/17 20:30

$5.00

150

$1,000

$675.00

$325.00

-$257.50

Fri

Pokerfest #5 $750 PLO Turbo RB

1/18 15:00

$2.00

209

$750

$376.20

$373.80

-$336.18

Sat

Pokerfest #6 $50 Turbo(Buyin=5points)

1/18 17:00

$0.00

70

$50

$0.00

$50.00

-$50.00

Sat

Pokerfest #7 $750 Turbo RB

1/18 19:00

$1.00

337

$750

$303.30

$446.70

-$416.37

Sat

Pokerfest #8 $1500 RB

1/18 21:00

$5.00

219

$1,500

$985.50

$514.50

-$415.95

Sat

Pokerfest #9 $50 Turbo(Buyin=5points)

1/19 15:00

$0.00

91

$50

$0.00

$50.00

-$50.00

Sun

Pokerfest #11 Mega Sat Turbo

1/19 16:30

$1.00

25

$250

$22.50

$227.50

-$225.25

Sun

Pokerfest #10 $250 Turbo RB

1/19 17:00

$0.50

265

$250

$119.25

$130.75

-$118.83

Sun

Pokerfest #12 $750 Short Stack Turbo

1/19 19:00

$5.00

94

$750

$423.00

$327.00

-$284.70

Sun

Pokerfest #13 $500 7Stud Turbo

1/20 19:30

$5.00

44

$500

$198.00

$302.00

-$282.20

Mon

Pokerfest #14 $1000 6max Turbo

1/20 20:30

$2.00

486

$1,000

$874.80

$125.20

-$37.72

Mon

Pokerfest #15 $500 GTD

1/21 19:30

$1.00

168

$500

$151.20

$348.80

-$333.68

Tue

Pokerfest #16 $500 GTD

1/21 20:30

$2.00

181

$500

$325.80

$174.20

-$141.62

Tue

Pokerfest #17 $500 GTD

1/22 19:30

$2.00

77

$500

$138.60

$361.40

-$347.54

Wed

Pokerfest #18 $1000 Turbo Deepstack

1/22 20:30

$5.00

161

$1,000

$724.50

$275.50

-$203.05

Wed

Pokerfest #19 $750 Turbo Triple Chance

1/23 19:30

$2.00

133

$750

$239.40

$510.60

-$486.66

Thu

Pokerfest #20 $1000 Ante-Up

1/23 20:30

$5.00

135

$1,000

$607.50

$392.50

-$331.75

Thu

Pokerfest #21 $500 Short Stack

1/24 19:30

$1.00

291

$500

$261.90

$238.10

-$211.91

Fri

Pokerfest #24 $750 6max PLO

1/24 20:30

$5.00

91

$750

$409.50

$340.50

-$299.55

Fri

Pokerfest #25 $50 6max Turbo(buy in=5points)

1/25 17:00

$0.00

142

$50

$0.00

$50.00

-$50.00

Sat
Sat

Pokerfest #26 $1000 GTD PLO

1/25 19:00

$2.00

293

$1,000

$527.40

$472.60

-$419.86

Pokerfest #27 $2500 Turbo RB

1/25 21:00

$5.00

367

$2,500

$1,651.50

$848.50

-$683.35

Sat

Pokerfest #28 - $50 Turbo(buyin=5pts)

1/26 15:00

$0.00

125

$50

$0.00

$50.00

-$50.00

Sun

Pokerfest #29 $1000 Turbo Bounty

1/26 17:00

$2.00

212

$1,000

$381.60

$618.40

-$580.24

Sun

Pokerfest #30 $2500 Turbo RB+AO

1/26 19:00

$5.00

386

$2,500

$1,737.00

$763.00

-$589.30

Sun

Pokerfest #31 $750 6max Turbo

1/26 21:00

$1.00

591

$750

$531.90

$218.10

-$164.91

Sun

Pokerfest #33 $250 PLO SS Hyper RB Big AO

1/27 20:30

$0.50

469

$250

$211.05

$38.95

-$17.85

Mon
Tue

Pokerfest #34 $250 HU Turbo

1/28 19:30

$2.00

95.

$250

$171.00

$79.00

-$61.90

Pokerfest #35 $1000 6max Ante-up Turbo

1/28 20:30

$5.00

150

$1,000

$675.00

$325.00

-$257.50

Tue

Pokerfest #36 $750 Turbo RB

1/29 19:30

$1.00

507

$750

$456.30

$293.70

-$248.07

Wed

Pokerfest #37 $250 PLO Turbo RB

1/29 20:30

$0.50

295

$250

$132.75

$117.25

-$103.98

Wed

Pokerfest #38 PLO8 Turbo RB $1000

1/30 19:30

$2.00

384

$1,000

$691.20

$308.80

-$239.68

Thu

Pokerfest #39 $500 7Stud Turbo

1/30 20:30

$5.00

63

$500

$283.50

$216.50

-$188.15

Thu

Pokerfest #40 $250 Short Stack Hyper

1/31 19:30

$0.50

447

$250

$201.15

$48.85

-$28.74

Fri

Pokerfest #41 $2500 6max Turbo

1/31 20:30

$5.00

413

$2,500

$1,858.50

$641.50

-$455.65

Fri

Pokerfest #42 $750 Turbo Triple Chance

1/31 21:30

$2.00

291

$750

$523.80

$226.20

-$173.82

Fri

Pokerfest #43 $500 Turbo Bounty

2/1 15:00

$2.00

190

$500

$342.00

$158.00

-$123.80

Sat

Pokerfest #44 $250 6max Ante-Up Turbo

2/1 17:00

$1.00

125

$250

$112.50

$137.50

-$126.25

Sat

Pokerfest #45 $2500 Turbo RB

2/1 19:00

$5.00

326

$2,500

$1,467.00

$1,033.00

-$886.30

Sat

Pokerfest #46 $500 SS Hyper RB AO

2/1 21:00

$1.00

436

$500

$392.40

$107.60

Sat
Sun

Pokerfest #48 ME $10k DS Turbo

2/2 14:00

$10.00

521

$10,000

$4,689.00

$5,311.00

-$68.36
$4,842.10

Pokerfest #47 $50 Turbo(Buyin=5pts)

2/2 14:00

$0.00

132

$50

$0.00

$50.00

-$50.00

Sun

Pokerfest #49 $750 HU Turbo

2/2 16:00

$2.00

58

$750

$104.40

$645.60

-$635.16

Sun

Pokerfest #50 $1500 Turbo

2/2 20:00

$2.00

502

$1,500

$903.60

$596.40

-$506.04

Sun

PartyPokers PokerFest Events

PokerFest

WSOPOC

# of Events

50

Start Date

1/16/2014

1/19/2014

End Date

2/2/2014

2/2/2014

Total GTD

$45,250

$500,000*

Total Overlay

$19,744.00

$120,410.20*

Total Prize Pool

$25,506.00

$57,438.94

Total Profit

-$17,193.40

-$80,202.94*

Avg Buy-In

$2.86
General Stats

$214.57*
*Excluded freeroll for comparison

PartyPoker ran a tournament series called PokerFest with buy-ins ranging from $0.50 to $10. This
relatively small buy-in series consisted of 50 events, running 2-4 events a day from January 16th to
February 2nd. **New Jerseys Next Millionaire final table also ran during this event, where a lucky
winner won $1m in cash and tournament buy-ins. Also, PokerFest was running in conjunction with
WSOPs Online Championship Series, which consisted of 10 events with buy-ins ranging from $109 to
$530, including 2 $250,000 freerolls, running 1 major event a day from January 19 th to February 2nd. We
will use these two series to provide us more insight on tournament poker and series in New Jersey.
Although these two series were running side by side, I do not believe it had much of an impact on each
others player pool. However, it does allows us to extract a lot of critical information such as
popularity by stakes, popularity by game type, and the impact on ring games and daily tournaments.
Pokerfest Overview
PartyPoker offered a total of $45,250 guarantee, ranging from $50 to $10,000 GTD per event. Every
event experienced an overlay with a wide range of overlay severity, which was calculated by the
overlay divided by the prize pool (not included in this doc, refer to spreadsheet). The overlay severity
factor could be used to determine how successful the tournament was as it explains how extreme the
overlay was relative to the total wager or prize pool. PokerFest had a total overlay of $19,744, total
prize pool or player wager of $25,506, and a total profit of $-17193.40.
**Just a brief summary on New Jerseys Next Poker Millionaire, Party gave away $1.05m to its 8 finalists
who outlasted 2177 players over numerous free roll qualifiers that were running in the months of
November and December. Its severe pay-out distribution mightve been the main contributing factor
for its failure. First place received $1m (870k in cash + rest in tournament buy-ins) while 2nd place
received $20k. If you look at the graph below, you can see this $1m giveaway had absolutely no impact
on their long-term growth. I excluded this promotion in this analysis as it severely skewed the data.

PokerFest Total Profit

$0.00
-$2,000.00
-$4,000.00
-$6,000.00
-$8,000.00
-$10,000.00
-$12,000.00
-$14,000.00
-$16,000.00
-$18,000.00
-$20,000.00

1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35 37 39 41 43 45 47

Total Profit

Cumulative profit per event

PokerFest GTD & Prize Pool

GTD

Prize Pool

$12,000
$10,000
$8,000
$6,000
$4,000
$2,000
$0
1

11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35 37 39 41 43 45 47
Guarantee Offered and Prize Pool(GTD-Prize Pool=Overlay)

Popularity by Game-Type
Using overlay severity as a factor to determine the success of a tournament, the most popular gametype was the 6max turbo tournaments. All the 6-max turbo tournaments [Event #14, event #41, and
event #31 were placed in the top 10, making it the most popular game-type for this series. The 2nd
most popular game-type was the hyper turbo rebuy with big add-on, as both of the only 6-max hyper
turbo placed in the top 10 in terms of overlay severity.
The least popular game-types were satellites, heads-up, and deep stack tournaments, which we should
fully expect in a mini-series tournament. $1 satellite to a $10 event was not too appealing to the
casual players, as was the heads-up and deep stack tournaments since these formats are geared
towards more experienced players.
Another interesting observation to note is the day of the week seemed to have little significance on the
success of these mini-series tournaments. However, Monday did significantly better than the other
weekdays. This may be due to the popular game-types (6-max turbo and hyper turbos) being on these
days.

Name
WSOPC $250k
Freeroll
WSOPOC $215 R&A
WSOPOC $109 PLO
R&A
WSOPOC $215 NLH
$30k
WSOPOC $109 NLH
25k GTD
WSOPOC $215
6max $50k
WSOPOC $109 70k
GTD
WSOPOC $530 250k
WSOPoc $250k
Freeroll

Date
1/19
14:00
1/20
19:00
1/21
19:00
1/22
19:00
1/23
19:00
1/24
19:00
1/25
14:00
1/26
14:00
2/2
12:00

Buy In

Entries

GTD

Prize Pool

Overlay

$0.00

3663

$250,000

$0.00

$250,000.00

Profit
$250,000.00

$215.00

221

$50,000

$42,763.50

$7,236.50

-$2,960.15

$109.00

240

$25,000

$23,544.00

$1,456.00

$898.40

$215.00

224

$30,000

$43,344.00

$0.00

$4,334.40

$109.00

348

$25,000

$34,138.80

$0.00

$3,413.88

$215.00

220

$50,000

$42,570.00

$7,430.00

-$3,173.00

$109.00

523

$70,000

$51,306.30

$18,693.70

-$13,563.07

$530.00

328

$250,000

$164,406.00

$85,594.00

$0.00

814

$250,000

$0.00

$250,000.00

-$69,153.40
$250,000.00

Day
Sun
Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri
Sat
Sun
Sun

WSOPs Online Championship Series Events

WSOP Online Championship Series Overview

WSOP offered a total of $1,000,000 guarantee, ranging from $25,000 to $250,000. Although they
experienced some profit in 3 of the tournaments, they experienced a significant loss in profit, mainly
because of the 2 $250,000 free rolls, which is similar to Partys Next Millionaire. However, I believe
this tournament had a much more significant impact on ring games and daily tournaments than Partys
million dollar free roll. From observation, Id say the wider distribution to the number of players
contributed to its success. The free rolls paid out $500k to over 300 players over 2 tournaments,
while Party distributed 99% of that money to a single winner. NJs Next Millionaire 2nd place player
received 20k and only 8 players were paid out. Rather than focusing on giving away huge prize pools in
free rolls, we might be better off adding extra prize money in a tournament, or better alternatives.
With its limited game-type, its hard to extract information such as popular game-types. However, if
we compare the results to Partys PokerFest, we can see that there is a much greater interest in $100+
tournaments as opposed to buy-ins ranging from $1-$10. New Jersey is a gambling state, and poker
players are used to playing tournaments over $100. For example, the Borgata offers a Wednesday
tournament at 11:00am and 7:00 with a buy-in of $100+20. These have turn-outs of 200 entries per
tournaments, so experienced New Jersey players are used to buy-ins ranging from $100-$300. This also
applies to ring game, as the most popular stakes for ring games seem to be $.50/$1, $1/2, and $2/4.

WSOPOC Total Profit

$0.00
1

-$100,000.00
-$200,000.00
-$300,000.00
Total Profit
-$400,000.00
-$500,000.00
-$600,000.00
-$700,000.00
Cumulative profit per event

WSOPOC GTD & Prize Pool

GTD

Prize Pool

$300,000
$250,000
$200,000
$150,000
$100,000
$50,000
$0
1

Guarantee Offered and Prize Pool(GTD-Prize Pool=Overlay)

After Effects
Party experienced little to no growth after the end of the PokerFest and the NJs Next Millionaire while
WSOP experienced a noticeable growth in their daily tournaments. Although there could be other
factors involved in the growth of WSOPs daily tournament traffic, I think we have enough evidence
that WSOPs Online Championship had a positive effect on traffic.

Party/Borgata GTD Tournaments since January

$150,000

PokerFest
Series

$100,000

NJ's Next Poker

Millionaire
GTD
Prize Pool

$50,000

1
17
33
49
65
81
97
113
129
145
161
177
193
209
225
241
257
273
289
305
321
337
353
369
385
401
417
433
449

$0
PartyPoker GTD and Prize Pool per Event

Total Profit
$200,000.00

-$200,000.00

1
17
33
49
65
81
97
113
129
145
161
177
193
209
225
241
257
273
289
305
321
337
353
369
385
401
417
433
449

$0.00

-$400,000.00
Profit
-$600,000.00
-$800,000.00
-$1,000,000.00
-$1,200,000.00
PartyPoker Cumulative Profit

WSOP GTD Tournaments since January

$300,000

Championship Series

$250,000
Axis Title

$200,000
GTD

$150,000

Prize Pool

$100,000
$50,000

1
6
11
16
21
26
31
36
41
46
51
56
61
66
71
76
81
86
91
96
101
106
111
116
121
126
131
136
141

$0
WSOP GTD and Prize Pool per Event

Total Profit
$100,000.00

-$100,000.00

1
6
11
16
21
26
31
36
41
46
51
56
61
66
71
76
81
86
91
96
101
106
111
116
121
126
131
136
141

$0.00

-$200,000.00
-$300,000.00

Total Profit

-$400,000.00
-$500,000.00
-$600,000.00
-$700,000.00
WSOP Cumulative Profit
Key Points
Tournament series participants favor higher buy-in tournaments over lower buy-in tournaments
Free rolls arent as effective as offering higher guarantees or possibly added prize pools
Smaller buy-in tournament players seem to prefer quick games(turbos and hypers)
Quality tournaments with a simple schedule(the opposite of what Party did)
Different game types are more favorable to higher buy-in players than casual players
Payout to a wide number of players with a big first place prize rather than top-heavy payouts