888poker Launches New Saturday High-Roller Tournament: The Octopus
The world's second largest online poker site, 888poker, announced the launch of The Octopus, a new high roller event set to run every Saturday at 15:00 GMT beginning September 5, 2015.
Featuring a $215 buy-in and a premium $25,000 guarantee, the poker room said that The Octopus is the room's largest guaranteed tournament on the Saturday schedule.
"The Octopus will be our first eight-handed tournament and will have a very deep structure with 10,000 starting chips and 25-minute blind levels," a representative from 888poker told PokerNews. The event will also feature a four-hour window for late registrations, as the poker room believes this "should suit players joining in at various hours on Saturday."
The inclusion of The Octopus in 888poker's tournament schedule comes only a few weeks after the poker room decided to raise their tournament guarantees by more than $100,000 every month.
Earlier this month, the poker room decided to increase the prizes on tap in some of its major events "to mark the improved performance" of some tournaments and attract more players as summer's slow season comes to an end.
The Octopus will be our first eight-handed tournament and will have a very deep structure.
The increase in guarantees has seen tournaments like the Sunday Breeze move from $15,000 to $20,000, the The Quarterback move from $25,000 to $30,000, and the Midweek Breeze move from $7,000 to $8,000.
Here's a look at the full list of the tournaments that have seen their guaranteed prize pools increase in August:
| Tournament | Buy-in | Previous guarantee | New Guarantee | % increase |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sunday Breeze | $55 | $15,000 | $20,000 | 33.3% |
| Midweek Breeze | $55 | $7,000 | $8,000 | 14.3% |
| Tuesday Crocodile | $160 | $15,000 | $20,000 | 33.3% |
| Lightning 6-Max | $109 | $5,000 | $6,000 | 20% |
| The Quarterback | $215 | $25,000 | 30,000 | 20% |
| Deepstack (14:00 GMT) | $22 | $2,000 | 2,500 | 25% |
| $1 Snap (21:15 GMT) | $1 | $500 | $750 | 50% |
| Deepstack (15:15 GMT) | $5 | $800 | $1,000 | 25% |
To date, 888poker is the world's second largest online poker site after PokerStars, with a seven-day average of 2,000 real-money ring-game players according to PokerScout.
Although the site is solidly ahead of the Bodog and the iPoker Network, which respectively are the third and fourth biggest online poker sites with a seven-day average of 1,800 and 1,300 real-money ring players, 888poker is still far behind PokerStars, as online poker's market leader is home to a seven-day average of 15,000 real-money ring players.
However, things could improve if the poker room's parent company, 888 Holding, succeeds in taking control of the bwin.party Group, which would bring partypoker's seven-day average of 950 real-money ring players to the combined company, as well as consolidate the company's footprint in some European markets such as Spain and Italy.
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