With the Winter Olympics finished and the World Cup still months away, the eyes of Sweden can return their focus to poker, as for the third consecutive year 888poker is sponsoring an online poker series devoted to Swedish players. The sponsorship is one of several 888poker promotions that is helping shape both online and live poker across Europe, where the company’s latest push includes an expansion of the WPT500 London.
Sweden’s Premiere Online Series
The Swedish Poker-SM Online Championship Series (PSMO) launched in 2006 as a single event and has been held every year since. In 2014, the lone tournament transitioned into a more robust festival and offered poker variants beyond no-limit Texas hold’em. Two years after that, the PSMO partnered with 888poker to offer online tournaments and satellite events.
That year, the PSMO Main Event drew 144 players and saw “Blaser75” come out on top to win $4,968. Other winners from 2016 series on 888poker included “Skuumberg,” “Nlsbrn,” and “Rushtomten.”
The 2018 PSMO is comprised of 10 events throughout the month of April. Highlights on the schedule include a $320 buy-in PSMO High Roller 6-Max on Sunday, April 15 at 19:00 and a similar PLO High Roller a week later.
The keystone event of the series if the $150+$10 buy-in, $15,000 GTD PSMO Main Event to be held on Sunday, Apr. 29 at 7 pm. The winner of the Main Event will also be awarded an 888poker LIVE Barcelona package for the festival runs from May 31-June 3 at Casino Barcelona.
In addition, whoever tops the PSMO leaderboard will get a package to the 2018 WSOP Crazy Eights event in Las Vegas from June 30-July 3.
In the past, the PSMO has attracted players like World Series of Poker bracelet winner Peter Eichardt, Jerry “perrymejsen” Ödeen, and 888poker Ambassadors Sofia Lövgren, and 2014 WSOP Main Event champ Martin Jacobson.
WPT500 London Expands
The WPT500 London, which costs £420 ($565) to enter and boasts a £1,000,000 GTD prize pool, isn’t a traditional poker tournament. Instead of being held at one location, organizers are giving players the opportunity to play opening flights not only at Asper Casino locations across the UK, but also online via 888poker.
While live flights run Mar. 23-Apr. 2, the first online flight took place this past Sunday. It attracted 366 entries, and those who survived punched their ticket to Day 2, which will be played live on Sunday, Apr. 1 at London’s Aspers Westfield Stratford City. That tournament will utilize the WPT’s “Action Clock” to keep play moving.
Now, 888poker has added a second online flight to take place this Sunday, Mar. 18, at 7 p.m. London time. Players competing in WPT500 London online at 888poker will start with 15,000 in tournament chips and play 15-minute levels.
“The WPT500 is a great event that works beautifully,” said Matt Savage, who designed the WPT500 structure. “It gives the smaller buy-in player a chance at life-changing money and allows you to cash multiple times in the same tournament. We are happy to have 888 as a partner and they will provide qualifiers and even add an online component to WPT500 making for a massive event.”
Each starting flight, or which there is 17 total, ends when the field reaches 5% of the total number of buy-in and re-entries. Those players are then awarded a minimum payday of £1,065 ($1,500) and advance to Day 2 with whatever stack they bag.
In addition, the remaining top 8 percent of the field will be awarded $1,100, while the remaining top 12% of the field wins $900.
WPT500 London is the ninth installment of the WPT500. Four of them have been held in the UK, albeit at Dusk Till Dawn, meaning this is the first time at Aspers, which came about thanks to 888poker’s previous relationship with the property.
Other WPT500 events have been held in Las Vegas and Southern California. To date, WPT500 events have attracted more than 25,000 entries and awarded nearly $14 million in total prize money.
