The Garden State has been a hospitable host to a variety of top-notch poker tournaments over the years and the stakes just got higher.
Earlier this week. Borgata Casino and BetMGM announced “The Return: A Borgata Championship Event” will be in Atlantic City, with four tournaments over a seven-day period starting on Jan. 2.
With a $5,300 buy-in, the championship tournament will be held Jan. 4-5 and it will feature a guaranteed prize pool of $3 million, with players competing for a guaranteed first-place prize of $1 million.
The final table will be held Sunday, Jan. 8.
“The return of championship poker to Borgata is a long time coming,” said Vincent Alonge Jr., Borgata’s director of poker operations, in a news announcement. “Borgata is the premier gaming destination on the East Coast, which includes best-in-class poker tournaments.”
Players Can Qualify Online and In Person
BetMGM New Jersey casino will host several online qualifiers, with Borgata Poker hosting multiple in-person qualifiers, highlighted by a $540+$60 Big Stack No Limit Hold’Em tournament Jan. 3.
Online qualifier details can be found on the BetMGM poker platform and thru Borgata Poker’s Twitter: @BorgataPoker.
On Jan. 2, Borgata also will offer its first-ever Mystery Bounty event with $1 million in guaranteed bounties. These Bounty events mean players can win big by drawing a Mystery Bounty envelope with a top prize of $250,000. Rather than a standard bounty, players draw Mystery Bounties immediately after eliminating an opponent.
Two additional guaranteed tournaments will take place Jan. 6-8, highlighted by a $1,000 Borgata Bounty event and a $10,000 Super Survivor event.
“BetMGM recognizes the strong legacy of tournaments at Borgata and is thrilled to collaborate with the team to bring online qualifiers to ‘The Return,’” said Luke Staudenmaier, director of poker, BetMGM. “In the upcoming months, we look forward to offering online poker players various ways to qualify for this momentous event which will kick off 2023 with a bang.”
New Jersey is one of few states that offers online poker, along with Nevada, Pennsylvania, Delaware, West Virginia, Michigan and Connecticut.
Those states, with the exception of Nevada, also have real money online casinos that have legal slots, as well as table games such as roulette and blackjack.
Early registration for the championship and Mystery Bounty events opens on Dec. 1through the BetMGM poker app. In-person sign-ups for all events will begin on Jan. 1 inside the Borgata Poker Room.
You must have an MGM Rewards account to participate.
BetMGM and Play’n Go Team Up
BetMGM New Jersey was also in the news earlier this week when London-based Play’n GO announced it was adding BetMGM to its growing list of clients in North America.
Play’n Go will offer BetMGM customers both classics and new releases, such as Cash Pump, Blinged, Ankh of Anubis and Cat Wilde and the Lost Chapter.
The two companies will continue to work together to bring the games into more states in 2023.
Casinos Up Slightly; Mixed Bag for Sports Betting
New Jersey online casinos rebounded slightly in September for total and internet gaming revenue.
September’s total gaming revenue registered at more than $484.96 million, up 3% from August ($470.68 million) and the state’s monthly internet gaming win was more than $135.24 million, up 2.9% from August ($131.43 million).
Meanwhile, in "New Jersey sports betting the state posted a handle of more than $866.7 million, way higher than August’s number of $546.8 million. That mark, however, was less than the $1.011 billion notched in September 2021.
