$530 Big Blowout prize pool goes over $6 million as series continues on PokerStars
One of the most ambitious online tournament series offered by PokerStars in recent memory rolls on Monday, with the third in a series of four $5 million guaranteed events playing out at the world’s biggest online poker site.
The $530 Big Blowout hit 12,095 entries and counting by the end of Sunday’s Day 1 action. With late registration still available for the opening levels of Monday’s Day 2, the final tournament entry count could still climb higher.
The 12,095 registered entries so far pushed the prize pool well past the $5 million guarantee and was already up to $6,047,500 going into Monday’s Day 2 action.
The $530 Big Blowout plays as the third of a quartet of $5 million guaranteed events on the Blowout Series schedule. Today’s action plays down to the final 16 players, with the last two tables resuming Tuesday.
The winner stands to bag at least $818,000, as the $60 million guaranteed Blowout Series continues to award big paydays and draw huge fields.
Here’s a look at what’s happened so far in the PokerStars Blowout Series:
$109 Big Blowout: Biggest overlay in online poker history
The first of the Big Blowout Series’ $5 million guaranteed tournaments did not end well for the house. The $1.2 million overlay stands as the largest in online poker history, providing enormous value for the 37,673 entries showing up for the late December tournament.
The $109 Big Blowout needed 50,000 entries to meet the guarantee, but fell well short of that mark. Netherlands-based player ‘pilaa’ topped the massive field to take down the first-place prize, coming away with $381,174 per the terms of a four-way deal at the final table.
PokerStars didn’t collect any rake on this tournament as a result of the overlay as the Blowout Series’ most ambitious event didn’t meet expectations on the operator side.
$215 Big Blowout: Big turnout for a $6.37 million prize pool
The second of the $5 million guaranteed Blowout Series events realized 31,855 entries, pushing the final prize pool to $6,371,000. The Jan. 3-5 tournament got the series back on track as far as the expected player turnout for PokerStars.
The final table yielded a six-player deal, as the final six remaining players each came away with at least $209,608.
Romania’s Cosmin ‘UnHuman3’ Voinea took the lion’s share of the prize money, bagging the win and $456,346.
Looking ahead to the $1,050 PLO 8-Max Big Blowout
The $530 Big Blowout plays out this week, with the guarantee already surpassed. The final of the four $5 million guaranteed events plays Jan. 17-19 in the form of the $1,050 Pot-Limit Omaha 8-Max Big Blowout.
That tournament needs 5,000 entries to hit the guarantee, as PokerStars hopes to build on the success of the latest two installments of the Big Blowout.
The PokerStars Blowout Series featured a total of 88 events, using the traditional tiered system of low, medium, and high buy-in versions of each event. The $60 million guaranteed online festival featured nine different events offering seven-figure prize pools.
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