When is a quarter not a quarter? When PartyPoker is involved, so it seems. Head to the PartyPoker tournament lobby and you'll see a blue tab with "BIG QUARTER" written inside. Click this to reveal an $11 buy-in $200,000 guaranteed tournament called, The Big Quarter.
It is a strange name for an online poker tournament that looks, on the surface, to have nothing to do with quarters. The $11 buy-in isn't a quarter of any standard monetary or poker-related amount, nor is the $200,000 guaranteed prize pool, which is a fifth of $1 million. Day 2 of The Big Quarter takes place on May 5, so it's not even a quarterly event!
Weird name or not, The Big Quarter looks to be solid value for low stakes players, not least because the $200,000 guarantee is the largest prize pool currently in the PartyPoker lobby. Typically, PartyPoker's $11 buy-in tournaments have prize pools of around $10,000, although its recent Grand Prix Winter Mini Main Event paid out $43,630.
The Big Quarter section of the PartyPoker reveals two upcoming PKO Day 1s on February 11 and February 18, although it is highly probable there will be additional flights judging by Day 2 not running until May 5 and the fact 37 players have already played their way through to Day 2.
Day 1 players receive a generous starting stack of 100,000 chips and play to a structure where blinds start at 500/1,000/125a, increasing every eight minutes. Late registration remains open until the completion of the tenth level, with only one re-entry permitted during that time. Each Day 1 continues until only 10% of the field remains, and those top 10% of entrants progress to Day 2 on May 5 with a min-cash in tow, plus any progressive bounties they collected along the way.
Day 2 shuffles up and deals at 8:00 p.m. GMT on May 5 and concludes when only 24 players have chips in front of them. Those surviving players return to the action from 8:00 p.m. GMT on May 6 to play for the title of champion and the bulk of the $200,000 guaranteed prize pool.
Give Your Bankroll a Boost with the PokerNews-Exclusive PartyPoker Freerolls in FebruarySave the dates
Although The Big Quarter's $11 buy-in is at the more affordable end of the scale, PartyPoker is running plenty of satellites. Players can enter $1.10 and $2.20 buy-in Daily Legends satellites and use the $11 tickets these satellites award to enter The Big Quarter.
Those on a tighter budget or fancy trying to win their way into The Big Quarter for free will be delighted to learn freeroll satellites are available.
The PartyPoker lobby reveals three The Big Quarter Freeroll Satellite Phase 1s running at 5:00 p.m., 8:00 p.m., and 11:00 p.m. GMT on February 8 and 9, where the top fifty finishers progress to The Big Quarter Freeroll Satellite Final, where 100x $11 seats are guaranteed. Strangely, this final is also a freeroll, but the only way to enter it is to play your way in via one of the free-to-play Phase 1 satellites.
It's not every day you get to play for a share of a guaranteed $200,000 for an $11 investment, so forget about PartyPoker's naming convention and get stuck into The Big Quarter when you get the chance.
