Changes made after just two weeks
On Monday, online poker room partypoker announced that it has reworked its new cash game leaderboards. Normally reserved for tournament players, the cash game leaderboards provide opportunities for weekly prizes to those who specialize in ring games.
There are two primary cash game leaderboard divisions: No Limit Hold’em and Pot Limit Omaha. Every format of these games counts, except for heads-up matches and Short Deck games. Fixed Limit games do not count towards leaderboard points.
The weekly leaderboard races begin at midnight CET on Monday and run through 11:59pm CET on Sunday.
Four leaderboard tiers become seven
Within the Hold’em and Omaha categories, there are seven leaderboards, organized by stakes. Earlier this month, partypoker divided the two game types into four leaderboards each. The additional stratification should give more players a chance to earn rewards.
though there are now more tiers, the structure is easier to understand
The leaderboard tiers were also described by buy-in, which had to be clarified with blind levels, especially because a couple of the tiers had overlapping buy-ins. Though there are now more tiers, the structure is easier to understand, as partypoker is just sticking to blinds to separate each tier. There is no more worrying about what one’s buy-in qualifies them for; one only needs to look at the blinds.
Players earn one leaderboard point for every cashback point they get at the tables. One cashback point is earned for every $1 generated in rake. The promotion is clearly geared toward heavy grinders, but with the different tiers, it won’t just be the high-stakes pros dominating.
Now $180,000 in weekly prize money
Just over $180,000 will be awarded each week via the cash game leaderboards, up from $100,000. Total prizes are as follows for the different tiers on both the Hold’em and Omaha sides: Nano ($1,363), Mini Micro ($2,590), Micro ($5,205), Lower ($10,000), Low ($15,850), Medium ($25,000), and High ($30,000).
The lower the stakes, the more players that get paid
As many as 75 players will earn cash every week on the different leaderboard tiers. The lower the stakes, the more players that get paid. At the highest stakes, just the top 15 leaderboard finishers will earn weekly money. Of course, the prizes are greater at that level, with a minimum payout of $1,000. The top prize is $5,000.
partypoker has also promised a “new daily cash game promotion in the next few weeks” that will juice the total leaderboard prize pools to more than $200,000.