The relaunched version of the Partypoker Million tournament was cancelled on Sunday after some players were unable to join Day 2 of the event, despite progressing out of their opening day flight.
Players who were a part of Day 1D were shocked to find that they couldn’t take their seats on Day 2, and Partypoker officials found that the same glitch prevented them from pausing the tournament to fix what had happened.
Payouts, Tickets Offered to Impacted Players
The Partypoker Million was then allowed to play out for about an hour before officials finally decided that there was no hope of fixing the glitch in a reasonable way. At that point, and despite the fact the tournament had reached the money, the site cancelled the tournament.
The immediate reaction from players was one of shock, especially from those who stood to win big thanks to a large overlay in the tournament. Partypoker soon took to Twitter to explain how players were going to be compensated, coming up with a solution that seemed to largely satisfy the poker community.
1.) Firstly, we apologise for the issues with the partypoker MILLION tonight. An error occurred that prevented the Day 1D players being loaded into Day 2. This resulted in the cancellation of the tournament. The following tweets are what happens now….
— PartyPoker (@partypoker) November 3, 2019
First, all players that were still in the tournament when it was finally paused and cancelled received the payout for the rank they had reached. Then, all players who made it out of Day 1 were awarded shares of the $1 million prize pool, with half being split evenly, and half being split based on their chip equity. Anyone who made Day 2 was also awarded with a $215 ticket to a future Partypoker Million tournament.
Please accept our sincerest apologies for the inconvenience,” Partypoker wrote in a fourth and final tweet on the subject. “We remain committed to hosting the Partypoker Million, and it will run next week. Please bear with our customer support team who will be, understandably, very busy right now.”
Rob Yong also posted his own video on Twitter to explain what had happened, and to apologize to players. According to Yong, Partypoker would be paying out about $600,000 in extra compensation to players as a result of the glitch.
Re@ @partypoker MILLION – apologies for lack of response – I was out tonight when this disaster happened but have spoke to @tom_waters & we have compensated players as c $600K as per explanation. Micro also had same problem & will be treated in same way. FML Rob 😰 pic.twitter.com/2xPZ4oviE0
— Rob Yong (@rob_yong_) November 3, 2019
“All I can do is apologize, put our hands up, and say that it’s days like this where you just want to quit,” Yong said in the video.
Partypoker Million Back After 13 Years
The Partypoker Million was once one of the biggest weekly online poker tournaments on the planet. However, the event had not run since 2006, meaning that Sunday’s Day 2 was meant to be celebratory. This made the glitches even more painful for the site, which had advertised the new version of its signature tournament as having as player friendly a schedule as possible.
The glitch didn’t just impact the major tournament, either. The same issue was also seen in the $2.20 buy-in Micro Million, which had eight starting flights and a $20,000 guaranteed prize pool. Those who were in the final starting group – Day 1H – weren’t able to get into Day 2, causing a similar cancellation. Players in this, and other impacted events, were compensated similarly to those in the Partypoker Million.
Despite the issues, the Partypoker Million is back on the schedule for this week, when it will hopefully have a better resolution. Starting flights have already begun, with Day 2 scheduled for play on Sunday, Nov. 10.
