[toc]The live World Series of Poker may still be a few months off, but that hasn’t stopped WSOP New Jersey from upping its aggression.
Much to the delight of players, the site has unveiled a laundry list of March promotions, most of which will look at least vaguely familiar to site regulars.
However, sprinkled among the old standbys is at least one infrequent event that should help draw higher than average traffic to the tournament tables.
Here’s a look at the best of the bunch.
Miniaturized MTTs at WSOP NJ
Players that want to win big prizes WSOP NJ, but who don’t necessary have the roll to play in the site’s high buy-in tournaments, will relish this one.
From March 12-19, the site is hosting the Mini Fest of Poker — a string of eight guaranteed tournaments where the highest buy-in is $10. The guarantees for these tournaments are admittedly on the lower end, ranging from $150 to the low four figures, but the rebuy and add-on formats could facilitate an increase to these prize pools.
The highlight event occurs on March 19, when players have a chance to parlay $10 into a sizable slice of a guaranteed $2,000 prize fund.
Also on the schedule is a pot-limit Omaha event (March 13), where the price of entry is just a mere $2. This presents a rare inexpensive opportunity for players to learn an alternative format.
Satellites abound at WSOP NJ
There is no shortage of satellites this month. For just $1 players can parlay their way into the site’s Warriors’ Opening Strike — a $50 buy-in, $10,000 guaranteed tournament that runs every Sunday at 4 p.m. The top prize for this event usually comes in somewhere around $3,500.
As an added perk, satellite winners are granted the flexibility to use their ticket on any $50 buy-in event.
On the high end, WSOP NJ is offering satellites to its Tuesday Showdown, a mammoth $15,000 guaranteed re-entry event where the price of admission is a steep $500. However, the satellite enables players to win their way in for just one-tenth that cost, $50.
Each Tuesday Showdown satty awards a minimum of five seats, so be on the lookout for overlays.
But perhaps the most attention grabbing qualifier is the one WSOP NJ will be hosting every week from now until the 2017 WSOP Main Event at the Rio in Las Vegas.
On Sundays at 7:30 p.m., players can ante up $500 (re-entry) to try and win a $12,000 WSOP Main Event prize package, that not only includes a seat, but also gifts $1,000 for travel and an additional $1,000 ticket into Event No. 71, the $1,000 WSOP.com Online Bracelet tourney.
The online bracelet event is just one of three that WSOP.com in Nevada will be hosting this summer, marking the first time in industry history that multiple bracelets will be given away via the online format.
Old meets new at WSOP.com
Beginning last month, WSOP NJ has added a nuance to its recurrent SNG Leaderboards promotion.
As usual, the best performing sit & go players will split a $3,000 prize pool, spread across three buy-in tiers and 30 players per tier.
The twist is that at the end of each leaderboard week, one player in the top 100 on each leaderboard is selected to win half his or her paid rake back for the qualifying period.
Interestingly, the mechanism for which WSOP NJ selects the lucky winner is not entirely random (although it may as well be). Instead, the winner correlates to the cents spot for the price of gold for the day — hence the Gold Rush name.
For instance, if the price of gold ends at .76 on the qualifying day, the 76th spot on the leaderboard will win the Gold Rush component of the promotion.
There’s still time to get in on this week’s leaderboard rush, which runs from February 28 – March 6.
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Where does WSOP NJ stand in the market?
Currently, WSOP NJ’s cash game traffic trails that of industry leading PokerStars, but the margin is small. According to Poker Industry Pro via PokerScout.com, PokerStars boasts a rolling seven-day average of 146 players, versus 140 for WSOP.com.
However, the script may flip shortly, as PokerStars’ Cash Game Quests promotion comes to a close on March 5.
The two have been embroiled in a fierce competition for the cash game market lead dating back to last May. That said, PokerStars regularly beats out WSOP with regard to monthly gross gaming revenue.