After abruptly disappearing in late 2023, PartyPoker LIVE has made a surprise return, with five live events announced for 2025.
The first three events will be held across the UK in London, Manchester, and Glasgow, with two more dates yet to be announced. It’s unclear if it’ll be exclusively Hold’em events or if other types of poker will be included.
Each stop on the tour has the same structure, consisting of three key events:
- £500 buy-in Main Event
- £150 buy-in Mini Main Event
- £1,000 buy-in High Roller
You can qualify via online satellites from £0.20, and the site is currently running a special offer where raking $0.01 earns you a ticket to the ‘PartyPoker Tour Path’.
The dates announced so far for the PartyPoker LIVE 2025 tour are:
- London, April 19-27
- Manchester, June 17-22
- Glasgow, August 12-17
Pre-Black Friday, PartyPoker was a force to be reckoned with, hosting the first ever PartyPoker Millions event in 2002 with a million bucks guaranteed – something unheard of at the time.
The late Mike Sexton was at the helm, helping to guide PartyPoker into the hearts of the poker community. When Chris Moneymaker won the WSOP Main Event, PartyPoker became the go-to poker site. A few risqué poker ads helped attract casual players, too.
However, PartyPoker was one of the worst hit by Black Friday, and subsequently fell down the ranks. Live events were canned.
MILLIONS Returns
In 2016, PartyPoker relaunched its famous MILLIONS event with a new look, a new venue, and a new prize pool. They slapped an ambitious £5 million guarantee on the line, with at least £1 million for the champion, then gradually increased that as the MILLIONS live event got closer.
It was a huge success. From there, PartyPoker’s live brand rose to compete with PokerStars, and it once again became one of the most popular poker sites in the UK. Major events were held all over the world, from the UK’s Dusk Till Dawn to the Caribbean Poker Party.
However, in late 2023, PartyPoker LIVE suddenly disappeared again.
What Happened?
PartyPoker is part of a larger company called Entain, who also run other online betting sites and casinos including Ladbrokes and Coral. Head leadership changed multiple times in a short span at Entain. In fact, its CEO of only five months stepped down just this week.
This has led to many changes in direction at the company, and poker appears to have fallen down the pecking order, with a bigger focus on slots and betting.
In the summer of 2023, the PartyPoker LIVE team were suddenly and unexpectedly let go, much like the recent WPT Global layoffs. There was no warning for staff who had spent years successfully rebuilding the PartyPoker LIVE brand, nor for players – many of whom still had tickets and packages which could only be used on PartyPoker LIVE events.
Emergency Events
With the live events team gone and players still holding thousands of dollars in worthless tickets, something had to be done. PartyPoker decided it would host a handful of events, giving players the chance to use any outstanding packages. It wasn’t a perfect solution, but it was better than nothing.
Three PokerParty LIVE stops were held in 2023 in Bratislava, Malta, and Dublin. Then, in November 2023, PartyPoker LIVE once again ground to a halt.
PartyPoker LIVE in 2025
It’s not clear what has prompted PartyPoker to bring its live tournaments back to life, but it’s news which will be welcomed by players. PartyPoker events were hugely popular, held worldwide, and attracted tons of publicity with their massive guarantees. Frankly, it’s a mystery as to why they were called off in the first place.
We’ll keep you posted when PartyPoker unveils details of its next two live events. And, hopefully, many more after that.