Up-and-coming PartyPoker and market leader PokerStars go head to head next month, offering competing tournaments with total guarantees of $100 million.
Rivals PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) and PartyPoker Powerfest products are both scheduled for the 6 – 20 May time slot, with the former offering guarantees up $10 million over last year at $65 million across Low Medium and High events, along with five of its $30,000 Platinum Passes.
Last year’s SCOOP generated prize pools totalling $93 million, well over the $55 million in guarantees that PokerStars invested, and this year is expected to produce similar levels of interest among poker players.
Answering the challenge, Party Poker has confirmed that it will be boosting the guarantees to $40 million in its second Powerfest series this year, covering 366 games with 17 million dollar championship competitions.
The schedule has yet to be published, but will include a wide range of poker genres and buy-ins.
The respective websites have more detail.