Poker Central Partners With partypoker for Online Poker Masters

Poker players and poker enthusiasts locked up at home will have more reasons to play online as another online series is set to hit the virtual felts next month!

The Online Poker Masters will be a 15-day affair, kicking off on April 12. The online poker festival is made possible through a unique partnership between two major poker brands – partypoker and Poker Central.

The groundbreaking series promises more than $15 million in guaranteed prize money, featuring a jam-packed schedule of high roller events, with buy-ins starting at $10,300, all the way up to $51,000.

Players will compete across 30 high-stakes events throughout the festival, and similar to the previous live editions of the series, the player topping the scoreboard will take home the highly-coveted Poker Masters Purple Jacket. Last year, Sam Soverel won the accolade after taking down the 2019 Poker Masters Main Event.

Traction Shifts Online

This is the third online poker tournament to be hosted by partypoker in April and May. Last week, the operator also announced it would host the online edition of the 2020 Irish Open, which will take place on April 6-12. partypoker is also partnering with the World Poker Tour (WPT) for the first-ever WPT Online Series on May 10-26. The series will have 10 headline events, with a whopping $30 million guarantee up for grabs during the entire festival.

partypoker Managing Director Tom Waters said hosting online tournaments will make it possible for players to still continue to do what they love, wherever they are.

The Poker Masters in particular has been a hit among players and fans, but as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread worldwide, major events had to be cancelled or postponed. An online edition would be a perfect alternative, and Waters said the innovative online format would likely attract players and fans around the globe.

The President of Poker Central Sam Simmons said they are equally excited to work with partypoker as the Poker Masters brand embarks on a new format. Simmons said the new partnership serves as a way for poker players and fans to still connect with each other in the wake of this crisis.

As of this writing, there are more than 381,000 confirmed COVID-19 infections in over 100 countries worldwide. The virus has since claimed more than 16,500 lives. The epicenter of the pandemic is currently Europe, with Italy being the most affected. This could more European poker tournaments could be cancelled as the world struggles to curb the virus.