Three Michigan Players Heading to Vegas After Winning $25K Packages at BetMGM Poker MI

Three poker players from Michigan are heading to Las Vegas, as a Father’s Day gift of sorts from BetMGM Poker Michigan.

On Sunday, the site hosted a special $1,060 buy-in Ultimate Super Satellite event. The tournament guaranteed two $25,000 packages covering buy-ins to major live poker tournaments in Las Vegas. The turnout was large enough to add a third $25K package to the prize pool.

Las Vegas poker trips to include WSOP Main Event in November

The event proved popular, drawing 89 total entries. In the end players “farmhand,” “Mentalist,” and “LouisD60” survived nearly 5.5 hours of poker to win the packages. “Kickback23,” who finished fourth, took away $14,000 cash as a nice consolation prize.

The winners will use the money to enter events in Las Vegas starting this week and continuing into July, as well as in November. The $25,000 has been earmarked to be used according to the following schedule:

• June 25-July 2 — Las Vegas $10K buy-in event
• July 2-7 — Las Vegas $5K buy-in event
• Nov. 4-17 — Las Vegas $10K buy-in event

With casinos and poker rooms all opening once again following COVID-19 pandemic-caused closures, the summer poker tournament schedule is currently starting to heat up along with the temperatures in Las Vegas.

Meanwhile, the November dates coincide with the latter part of the World Series of Poker at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino. Just last week, the WSOP released its 88-bracelet schedule of live events. The series will run from late September through mid-November, with the first starting flight of the $10,000 buy-in WSOP Main Event, scheduled for Nov. 4.

Michigan outperforms New Jersey’s parallel Ultimate Super Satellite

BetMGM Poker, Borgata Poker,and partypoker NJ also ran a similar $1,060 buy-in Ultimate Super Satellite event in New Jersey on Sunday night. Those three sites share a player pool the state over the partypoker US network.

Interestingly, the NJ version of the event came with a guarantee of three $25K packages to Vegas. But with only 59 total entries, that event had an overlay.

Slow start for BetMGM Online Series, with early overlays

Those Vegas trips weren’t the only factors on the minds of BetMGM Poker Michigan players this past weekend.

Sunday also saw the start of the 10-tournament BetMGM Online Series on BetMGM Poker MI. The series runs June 20-28 and features a total of $275,000 in guaranteed prize pools.

The Sunday kickoff event had a $215 buy-in and a $50,000 guarantee. But with only 177 total entries, that meant only $35,400 was collected; thus, there was an overlay of $14,600.

Monday’s event was also a $215 tournament, this time with a $20,000 guarantee. That one drew 74 total entries, and also had an overlay, this time of $5,200.

It’s the third running of the BetMGM Online Series on the site since BetMGM Poker MI launched in late March. In each case the series has featured similar eight-day, 10-event schedules.

The first BetMGM Online Series on the site had $300,000 in guarantees and awarded over $360,000. The second then stepped up total guarantees to $315,000, but ultimately had around $65,000 in overlays.

The BetMGM Online Series winds up with three events Sunday, June 28, including a $1,060 buy-in finale with a $75,000 guarantee.

The series faces some competition in Michigan from the final week of the PokerStars Summer Stacks Festival on PokerStars MI. During roughly the first half of that series (55 of 100 events), players on PokerStars MI won just over $545,000.