NJ Sunday Tournament Wrap: Super Bowl Kills Traffic, Produces Big Overlays

Super Bowl Sunday brought absolute havoc on New Jersey’s online poker tournaments this weekend, as you’ll soon see in this week’s installment of the NJ Tournament Wrap, our weekly look at the biggest online poker tournaments in New Jersey from the Sunday Majors to singular tournament festivals.

Borgata/PartyPoker Sunday $50K Guaranteed

The Details:

• $200 buy-in ($185+$15)
• 205 entries
• Prize-Pool = $50,000 ($12,075 overlay)

205 players! That’s it!

Before anyone starts pushing the panic button and declaring that NJ.PartyPoker.com and BorgataPoker.com are in big trouble, the massive drop-off in attendance this week is easily explained away by the Super Bowl, every site saw a significant decrease and the Super Bowl was played in New Jersey to boot.

With a $12,000 overlay, the Sunday $50k Guaranteed accomplished two things for the players who decided to play:

1. It offered a tremendous value
2. It gave them something to occupy their time while Seattle railroaded Denver

One of the big winners was a player who is well-known on the tournament trail, 2011 WPT Borgata Poker Open winner Bobby Oboodi. Oboodi finished as the runner-up to “F-350.Driver” in one of the few Sunday $50k Guarantees that didn’t include a final table deal.

Here is how the final table participants made out:

1. F-350.Driver – $8,800
2. BobbyOboodi – $5,850
3. hilomelko – $4,450
4. solidrock – $3,650
5. jinro1- $2,925
6. jaywentz1976 – $2,300
7. brownmagic – $1,800
8. beast801 – $1,350
9. Splits89 – $975

It should also be noted that partypoker is incorporating a few changes to the Sunday $50k Guaranteed moving forward. Beginning on February 9^th, the tournament will start at 5 PM instead of 8 PM (late registration will be open until 8 PM) and will feature a $10k guarantee for first place –so $50k overall and $10k to the winner.

You can find more information on the changes to the Sunday $50k Guaranteed at the partypokerblog.

Borgata/PartyPoker Fest Main Event $10k Guarantee

The Details:

• $10 buy-in
• 521 entries
• Prize-Pool = $10,000 ($4,790 overlay)

The micro-stakes tournament series PokerFest came to a close on Sunday with the Main Event, a $10 buy-in tournament that saw partypoker kick-in almost ½ the prize-pool in the form of an overlay.

The final table saw a six-way deal agreed upon, essentially divvying up almost half the prize-pool, and flattening the payouts considerably –not a single person received more than 8.5% of the prize-pool!

Here is how the final table played out:

1. spongebob – $855.28*
2. cappyz – $772,46*
3. trg320 – $742.74*
4. Pickles – $734.97*
5. snacks – $675.81*
6. BeastNJ – $393.77*
7. olin – $210
8. JerseyGamble7 – $145
9. FooQuan – $115

WSOP.com $25k Guarantee

The Details:

• $215 buy-in ($200 + $15)
• 97 entries
• Prize-Pool = $25,000 ($5,600 overlay)

The $50k Guarantee wasn’t the only tournament adversely affected by the Super Bowl. WSOP.com’s $25k Guarantee managed to pull in just 97 players (this same tournament had 122 players last week and 147 the week before) which meant a $5,600 overlay.

Here are the final table payouts from the $25k guaranteed:

1. Deuxexmachin – $7,125
2. DegenLen – $4,125
3. SaulGoodman – $2,500
4. megolaman1ac – $2,000
5. ickytoy1 – $1,725
6. Deuce.Staley – $1,475
7. Stripey – $1,225
8. montymole – $850
9. Idealistic – $675

US.888Poker.com $10k Guarantee

The Details:

• $200 buy-in ($185 + $15)
• 44 entries
• Prize-Pool = $10,000 ($1,860 overlay)

888 came the closest to hitting their guarantee this past Sunday, falling just 10 players shy of hitting the $10,000 prize-pool mark, but is that really impressive considering they have by far the smallest guarantee?

Party has the biggest prize-pool; Ultimate Poker offers the best value; and WSOP.com offers the best rake. Which begs the question, where does 888 fit in?

This remains the smallest guarantee of the four weekly majors, and might require 888 to go full Emeril and “kick it up a notch” to make this one of the must play tournaments in New Jersey.

Here are the final table payouts from this week’s tournament:

1. kingroman – $3,200
2. KickDJ02 – $1,800
3. PRINCECOLE – $1,250
4. joey1way – $1,050
5. Mateo16 – $830
6. chrism23 – $730
7. ShipAPotUMus – $620
8. Deznutz777 – $520

Ultimate Poker Sunday Major $20k Guaranteed

The Details:

• $100 buy-in ($91+$9)
• 83 entries
• Prize-Pool = $20,000 ($12,447 overlay)

Ultimate Poker’s big weekly tournament (with an almost impossible to attain $20,000 guarantee considering the traffic at the site) has been giving away a ton of money in overlays, and this week was the biggest so far, as 60% of the prize-pool came straight from the site.

Here is a look at how the final table played out on Super Bowl Sunday:

1. Ezzed – $6,200
2. Kiska – $4,200
3. GIMMEDALOOT – $3,000
4. Yogi – $2,000
5. OsbornCox – $1,600
6. muckyou – $1,200
7. PocketProfit – $800
8. suchislife – $600
9. RounderAK – $400