It would be pretty easy to get discouraged. After all, bringing $1 million guaranteed online poker tournaments back to the United States is no easy task. But this is exactly what we at Americas Cardroom are determined to do and despite a few setbacks (some of them pretty major), we’re continuing to push ahead.
In less than a month on Aug. 2, 2015 at 3:00 pm ET, Americas Cardroom will host its third $1 million GTD Million Dollar Sundays tournament. We are the only US facing network to offer a tournament this size and believe me when I say it’s no small undertaking.
The idea to do the first Winning Millions tournament came across my desk early in 2014 and I’ll be the first to admit I was pretty skeptical. Before that date, the biggest tournament that we’d run was a $250,000 GTD and we barely got it to cover.
The Winning Millions tournament was over twice the buy-in ($500+$40) of our usual majors ($200+$15) and would need 2,000 entrants to cover the guarantee. Still, the idea was exciting as it was something that US players hadn’t seen in almost three years and it would be a challenge.
So six months before the tournament started, we started to market it. Everything was about the Winning Millions $1 million GTD tournament scheduled for Dec. 14. Every article, every press release, everything we could think of we used to get the word out about the Winning Millions tournament.
After six months of hard work, the day of the tournament finally came and things were looking good. Our pre-registration numbers looked promising and the player turnout for the Online Super Series leading up to the main event was higher than expected.
And then… a big setback. Just as the first card of the Winning Millions tourney was dealt, players began experiencing extreme lag and timing out at the tables. This was a result of unforeseen DOSS attacks by unknown sources. Despite our best efforts from our technical team we were forced to cancel the tournament and refund all the money.
Still, our team was determined and the day we cancelled the Winning Millions, we rescheduled it and redoubled our efforts. Our software team worked around the clock to enhance the security of the site and ensure the problems we encountered weren’t faced again.
On Feb. 22, just over two months after our first attempt, we ran it again. This time, it went off without a hitch. In total, we got 1,772 runners, and the tournament ran smoothly with no technical glitches at all. The players who participated loved it too, getting the extra benefit of a $114,000 overlay. Despite the overlay, we were thrilled with the success of it and scheduled the next one for April 12 and improved on our previous performance, getting 1,815 runners.
Now, it’s time for the third one. The next Million Dollar Sunday is on Aug. 2 at 3:00 pm ET. Every one of these tournaments has a guaranteed $200,000 for first place. This time we have more ways to qualify than ever, including offering Jackpot Poker to the Million Dollar Sunday in the week leading up to the tournament. Our satellites are also bigger than ever with 25 seats guaranteed every Sunday leading up to the event via our Beast and Sit & Crush Million Dollar Sundays satellites.
It’s been a long time since players from the US had something to get excited about. We’re doing everything we can to bring big prize pool tournament poker back to US players and hope you join us in making Million Dollar Sundays a permanent fixture on our tournament schedule.
Jamie Harvey
Americas Cardroom Blog Editor
If you’re ready to start playing but don’t have an account, click the banner below for more information. New Americas Cardroom players are eligible for a first-time deposit bonus of 100 percent up to $1,000. It’s finally time to get excited about online poker again in the US! Deposit now to take your seat and make life-changing money.
