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A Strong Garden State Super Series Spring ’18 Surpasses Guarantees

Borgata‘s Garden State Super Series Spring ’18 came to a close on Sunday. Looking back on the series, we can say it improved upon the fall version of the tournament and provided a solid bump to Borgata and partypoker online poker traffic for the week.

The GSSS Spring ’18 went off without a hitch, which hasn’t always been the case. After tallying the prize pools, Borgata found itself on the right side of the balance sheet.

It’s nice to have some positive results to report about New Jersey online poker, for a change.

GSSS Spring ’18 Recap

The popular online poker tournament series gathered a total prize pool of $436,150 from the 17 events on the schedule. That figure more than covered the $365,000 in guarantees set before the series began.

Of the 17 events, 11 exceeded their guarantee, leaving six that didn’t. Even so, the 11 that exceeded the guarantee did so by a good margin.

Analyzing the series, we found:

  • The series started strong when Event #1 – $109 Six-Max No-Limit Hold’Em exceeded its $10,000 guarantee with a $15,400 prize pool.
  • Both of the $55 buy-in events, the lowest buy-in on the schedule, struggled to meet their guarantees. Pot Limit Omaha (Event #12) missed its guarantee by $400, and NLH Turbo (Event #5) missed it by $950.
  • Pot-limit Omaha continues to struggle to generate interest. In the Spring ’17 series, the PLO event posted a 20% overlay. And even though last fall the event barely made its guarantee, falling back into overlay territory during this series does not bode well for the one NLH event on the schedule.
  • Both of the $535 buy-in events (the highest buy-in except for the high roller) smashed their guarantees. Event #6 – Mega Tuesday Six-Max NLH exceeded its guarantee by $13,500 and Event #9 – Mega Thursday NLH exceeded it by $11,500.
  • The series ended strong with three of the four events held on the final day exceeding their guarantee. The High Roller being the one tournament that missed the mark.

The GSSS Spring ’18 Major Events

On Sunday, the final day of the series, Borgata held four final events, two of them with massive guarantees.

Event #15 – $320 NLH Main Event with a $100,000 guarantee had 369 entrants, producing a prize pool of $110,700. The number of entrants was a 24% increase in registrations compared to last week’s major tournament. It also surpassed last fall’s Main Event by 25 entrants.

The event lasted just over 11 hours and concluded when the tournament reached heads up. The remaining two players, ‘Jenger’ and ‘TULLYTIME31’ made a deal, the details of which aren’t public yet. We know ‘Jenger’ finished in first place and likely claimed the larger portion of the $34,084.54 that was left to be divided.

Event #16 – $1060 High Roller with a $60,000 guarantee fell short of its guarantee by $5,000. This was the largest overlay of the series.

Last fall this event was on the opening Sunday of the series and drew 47 entrants compared to just 45 entrants this year. It seems the move to the final Sunday and competing with the Main Event was an experiment that didn’t pay off.

After nearly five and a half hours, winner ‘pay4medsch00l’ collected $15,500 worth of medical school tuition.

New Players Get A Free Bonus At partypoker NJ

Some Final Thoughts

Yes, the series exceeded its guarantees and appeared to have had a strong showing. It’s not hard to appear strong in a struggling online poker market like the one New Jersey has been experiencing.

It seems as if Borgata was hedging its bet a little when creating the schedule. Compared to the series held last fall, GSSS Spring ’18 offered three more events and yet there were $10,000 less in guarantees for the entire series.

While New Jersey players love their big, bold tournaments, the online poker rooms are not quite ready to bank on them to reverse the declining revenue trends we have been seeing.

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New PA Online Casino Regs Open The Door For Out-Of-State Servers

The latest Pennsylvania gaming regulations answered some questions pertaining to security, integrity, advertising, and location of the servers for the forthcoming online gambling sites in the Keystone State. However, there are still several unanswered questions, namely how many skins each license can have.

The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB) approved preliminary online casino and poker regulations this week. Both are temporary regulations but deal with interactive gaming testing and controls and interactive gaming platform requirements, reported Online Poker Report.

Even with the establishment of these regulations, they are not official until published in the PA Bulletin, from which they are currently absent.

Player exposure to risks

The scope of the recent regulations deals primarily with the security and integrity of the interactive gaming operations and how they impact the player.

Things of note:

  • Server location
  • Server security
  • Platform inoperability
  • Player access

Equipment for interactive gaming (e.g., servers) may be in a restricted area of the licensed facility. These must be approved but could be anywhere in the U.S. as long as they meet PGCB requirements. This is a big departure from regulations in Nevada and New Jersey which require servers to be located in the same state as the operators. It also opens the doors for Pennsylvania casinos to partner with NJ operators without having to set up entirely different servers and equipment.

Server security addresses physical protection of equipment from natural disaster as well as man-made disasters. Additionally, the licensee must also be wary of personnel access to the server and keep a log of access to the various parts of the system. In the event of any sort of issue, the licensee must have a recovery plan for any of the above concerns.

Per the new regulations, players can exclude themselves from playing and replay previous outcomes. Geolocation protocols will not allow players to access these online casinos or poker rooms outside of the state.

Mainly though, these regulations will put the onus on the licensee’s IT and security staff and the platform providers to “ensure the integrity and safety of interactive gaming operations in the Commonwealth.”

The security and integrity regulations include controls for equipment, system requirements, software disclosures, shutdown and recovery standards as well.

Second set of regulations start to standardize

The other set of regulations from PGCB make more information available to players.

Even if players haven’t deposited, they should have access to paytables and game rules. Players should also receive the minimum amounts of information required to play the game once inside of a game. This includes:

  • Name of the game
  • Player’s current balance
  • Restrictions in place
  • Amount won and lost per session

Other information comes along with these items, but regulators must approve any changes to any of game. A gaming laboratory must test random number generators. The PGCB standards apply to these random number generators as they determine game outcomes.

In turn, the licensee must also abide by certain “comprehensive house rules governing wagering transactions.” As is the theme, the players must be able to find these rules. Licensees can also ask for approval for live dealer games, or games with live dealers that are conducted online.

Promos and ads will need PGCB approval

Beyond that, ads must meet minimum standards without being exclusive or offensive. Additionally, promotions must be vetted by the state.

The goal of the PGCB is transparency and accuracy.

The next PGCB meeting April 2 will hopefully set regulations for how many branded online casinos (“skins”) the licensees may have.

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New York Considering Age Restrictions On Some Video Games

A bill introduced by six members of the New York State Assembly would require video game manufacturers to label games with randomized in-game purchases, restrict the sale of such games to persons under 18, and disclose the odds of the randomized prizes.

The summary of the bill reads:

“Requires chances of randomized in-game purchases in video games to be disclosed; requires labeling of video games with randomized in-game purchases; restricts purchasing of video games with randomized in-game purchases to those eighteen years old or older.”

The six sponsors of the bill, A 10075, are:

  • Primary sponsor: Asm. Jeffrey Dinowitz [D]
  • Sandra Galef [D]
  • Ellen Jaffee [D]
  • Rebecca Seawright [D]
  • Inez Dickens [D]
  • Vivian Cook [D]

What are loot boxes

Loot boxes landed on the government radar thanks to their prominence in the game Star Wars Battlefront II. They aren’t a new phenomenon though. Virtually every mobile app from Candy Crush to Angry Birds utilizes microtransactions to monetize their product.

Simply put, loot boxes are a shortcut in the game. Unlike the tit-for-tat purchase of more lives in Candy Crush, loot boxes are awards that contain random rewards.

Loot boxes are voluntary transactions, but game developers can make it so continued progress in some games almost necessitates their purchase.

Are loot boxes gambling?

In most cases, loot boxes fall short of a “gambling” designation, meeting only two of the three requirements:

  • Consideration: risking something of value
  • Chance: an element of uncertainty in the outcome
  • Prize: the awarding of something of value

Unless the contents of loot boxes can be sold or traded for money or something of value, they don’t meet the “Prize” criteria.

However, even if loot boxes aren’t technically gambling, calls for stiffer regulation are growing stronger, and not just in New York.

New York is not alone

Amid this growing concern, EA, the maker of Star Wars Battlefront II, pulled loot boxes from the game. However, the company is now considering reinstating them.

That’s a decision it might want to reconsider.

In addition to New York, loot boxes have come under fire in Hawaii, Congress, and in jurisdictions around the globe.

During a Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee hearing in February, New Hampshire Senator Maggie Hassan asked FTC nominees if they would independently review the use of loot boxes in video games.

That line of questioning came on the heels of Hassan writing to the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) about the matter:

“I respectfully urge the ESRB to review the completeness of the board’s ratings process and policies as they relate to loot boxes and to take into account the potential harm these types of micro-transactions may have on children. I also urge the board to examine whether the design and marketing approach to loot boxes in games geared toward children is being conducted in an ethical and transparent way that adequately protects the developing minds of young children from predatory practices.”

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Big Blind Ante Takes Poker World By Storm

There is a revolution taking place in tournament poker right now in the form of the big blind ante. Started by players in ARIA High Roller events, the concept has expanded to the world’s largest brands and tournaments. The debate on how to best implement the big blind ante has been a major discussion among the poker community on social media. Change doesn’t come easy in the poker world and the big blind ante has stirred up a whole bowl of it.

What exactly does the big blind ante do?

Have you ever been at a table where there are a few players who need a reminder every hand to put their ante in? The big blind ante solves that issue. Usually tied to the size of the big blind (ex. 2,000/4,000/4,000), the big blind antes for the everyone at the table each hand. The math of the game remains nearly the same.

There are a few small improvements in gameplay the big blind ante solves. Gone are the pesky T25 chips in starting stacks. Instead, players start with levels of 100/100/100 rather than 25/50.

The big blind ante has empirical data showing there are more hands played as a result of the format. Players across all buy-in levels enjoy it as well. Eventually, positie player feedback in High Rollers led to ARIA introducing it into $240 daily events.

Where is the big blind ante in use?

Tournaments using the big blind ante are found across America. ARIA was the first to use the format in 2017 and it has spread since then. The Wynn Poker Room introduced big blind ante across all of its events in 2018 to rave reviews from players.

The largest study of the format came in California at the L.A. Poker Classic. A field of close to 4,000 entrants used the big blind in the $350 buy-in opening event. World Poker Tour Executive Director Matt Savage found recreational players taking to the format upon putting it into play at LAPC.

Savage announced last month the WPT will be using the big blind ante in all Main Tour events come Season XVII.

The Borgata is utilizing the format for all of the Spring Poker Open in April. Seminole Hard Rock is following suit for a few events for their Showdown series next month.

Come this summer, The Venetian is putting the big blind ante into use for 16 tournaments in the DeepStack Extravaganza series from $400 single-day events all the way up to $5,000 buy-ins.

What is the controversy?

Daniel Negreanu made headlines last week over his adamant debate over a facet of the big blind ante structure. A veteran of ARIA High Rollers, Negreanu argues that the “big blind first” rule is best for players of the recreational and professional level.

“Big blind first” means that if a player is a all-in for up to or less than a covering stack when in the big blind, they are eligible to win their amount of chips multiplied by the number of players at the table.

“Ante first” in the same situation prevents a big blind from being posted and a player can only win back the chips they are all-in for, thus having zero additional equity in the hand.

Savage is a proponent of “ante first” and plans to use that definition of a rare all-in situation for the WPT.

The debate among Savage, Negreanu, and the poker community at large has netted out to a common denominator: the big blind ante is a popular choice among players.

Olivier Busquet summed up the argument for using big blind ante best when comparing to the current style of all players anteing.

Where does the trend go from here?

The big blind ante is popular across high roller events and is going to be in use at the Super High Roller Bowl and Big One for One Drop this summer. One Drop is the only World Series of Poker event to adopt the big blind ante so far but that should change come 2019.

The WSOP Circuit is tinkering with use in events and the growing popularity among players might be too much to pass up.

More venues and series are making the big blind ante the rule. SugarHouse in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is using the concept in a $150 tournament next month.

It’s only a matter of time before the days of every player putting in an ante is a thing of the past.

Lead image courtesy of World Poker Tour/Flickr

 

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