April 2021 is a fully loaded month for online poker players across the globe. Three of the world’s biggest online poker operators are simultaneously running massive festivals, with over $250 million in combined guarantees up for grabs!
PokerStars will host the Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP), GGPoker will run its own Spring Festival, while Powerfest is returning to partypoker.
Check out the key details of each series below.
2021 Spring Championship of Online Poker
SCOOP was launched in 2009 and since then has grown to become one of the world’s most popular and highly-anticipated annual festivals. The 2020 SCOOP edition was an exceptional year for the series as it ended up awarding $135 million in total prize money, surpassing its $85 million initial guarantee. The surge in online traffic brought about by the COVID-19 home quarantine protocols mainly contributed to that record-breaking success.
PokerStars remains confident that the 2021 SCOOP will be even bigger and better. The biggest online poker room in the world has increased this year’s guarantee to a whopping $100 million, the first time ever that the site is offering a nine-figure guarantee. The 2021 SCOOP schedule is jam-packed with a total of 306 MTTs, running from April 4 to 28.
Among the main highlights of the festival are six Main Events taking place on April 25, guaranteeing between $350,000 and $5,000,000!
GGPoker Spring Festival
After PokerStars announced its $100M GTD SCOOP, GGPoker countered with an even-bigger guarantee! Its very own Spring Festival will also hit the online felts from April 4-28, and players are set to compete for an astonishing $150 million in guaranteed prize pool! The series features 300 individual events to be played in the Low, Medium, and High buy-in levels.
The series kicks off with the “Opening Stage”, with an NLHE ($1M GTD) and PLO ($500K GTD) tournament running for a week. Players can enter both of the tournaments for only $80. The “Headliner Stage” falls on the second week of the series and features a $10,300 NLHE Super MILLION$ which comes with a $10 million guarantee!
The “Main Stage” serves as the main highlight of the festival, and players should watch out for two massive Main Events taking place during this stage – a $1,500 NLHE Main Event guaranteeing $10 million, and a $1,500 PLO-NL Main Event guaranteeing $2 million.
partypoker POWERFEST
partypoker has yet to release the full schedule of its upcoming POWERFEST, but the site has announced some key details. The festival will take place from April 9 – 27, and will feature dozens of events, with buy-ins starting from as low as $1.10!
The series will culminate in a $1 million-guaranteed Main Event which will run for three days (April 24-27). Partypoker will also be hosting exclusive three-handed POWERFEST games which will give away tickets to huge POWERFEST tournaments. Satellites will also be running from just $0.11.
It’s not everyday that players get the chance to compete for over $250 million in guarantees within just a few weeks, and this makes the upcoming month of April more special. The competition is extremely tight, and these festivals will show each of the operator’s capabilities and strengths.
Online Poker Overtaking Live Poker?
PokerStars has been the leader in terms of online festivals during the spring months, particularly in April. SCOOP has been attracting massive turnouts since the inaugural series in 2009. The COVID-19 pandemic brought live poker to a standstill but gave iPoker a massive boost. Last year saw an influx of record-breaking online festivals, with total prize pools breaching the $100 million mark.
Even traditional live tournaments associated with premium poker brands like the World Series of Poker (WSOP) and World Poker Tour (WPT) also now have their online editions. This has caused the MTT landscape to significantly change and the competition has become more intense.
The current interest in online festivals is a positive sign for the online poker industry in general. The global poker industry as a whole could witness a significant boom once the COVID-19 situation finally settles down and live poker tournaments get back to normal again.
