Powerfest without HUDs: first day results

The first major tournament series of the post-HUD era at partypoker is finally here. POWERFEST kicked off yesterday, and in this article, we evaluate the first day results to measure the impact of the HUDs and hand history prohibitions.

POWERFEST X — $28M+ GTD

partypoker announced POWERFEST X one month ago, and all the poker community is staring at this event because it's the first major tournament series after the HUD prohibition instated on June 17th by the poker room. For fifteen days, partypoker scheduled several tournaments including 8 Championship events with $28M GTD. The big question is: will partypoker attract enough players to cover the GTD prizes?

POWERFEST X — First day results

For all those claiming that partypoker was doomed due to the HUD and hand histories restrictions, we have bad news — from low to high-stakes, almost all events played covered the GTD prizes, and the maximum overlay we spotted was 8%, while some tournaments exceeded the guarantee for 30%.

Powerfest #03-SHR $500k GTD

The event #3 was the largest tournament played yesterday with a $500k guaranteed prize pool that was smashed by the 126 players that paid the $5,000 + $200 buy-in. "PauliBet" occupied the first position for $154,350 while the partypoker pro "renato_nomura" reached the final table and ended in the 7th position.

Powerfest #04-HR: $400k GTD [PKO]

203 players paying the $2,050 + $50 buy-in boosted the GTD prize pool of $400,000 to $416,150. "R_Romanello" ended in the 4th position and "DasIstMirWurst" won the tournament receiving $50,170+32,728.

Powerfest #02-L: $40k GTD [Deep] *Overlay

One of the few events where an overlay was spotted. 3,771 players were not enough to cover the $40k GTD prize pool as the buy-in was only $10 + $1 and the money collected was $37,710, a 5,725% overlay.

Powerfest #06-HR $250k GTD [Fast, PKO] *Overlay

The event #06 had a 6,16% overlay ($15.400) as only managed to attract 230 players with a $1,020 + $30 buy-in. The popular player Jeff Gross got to the final table and ended in the 5th position. "eGGplant" won the event cashing almost $50k.

Conclusion

The post-HUD era isn't a difficult time for partypoker. The traffic (both cash games and tournaments) have not decreased, or if so, only by a few points. This may have several explanations:

There are not a lot of tournament series with millions of dollars guaranteed, which somehow forces high-rollers to join the partypoker events;
partypoker isn't the first poker room in restricting third-party software; in the past, GGNetwork, MPN, Unibet, among others have successfully implemented anti-reg policies;
The poker room still offers a decent rakeback and a good poker client;
More recreational players are coming to the room thanks to the politics in their favor.

In 2019 players must choose whether HUD and hand histories are crucial for them, or if they can adapt to new restrictions that every day, more and more poker rooms are implementing. To all of them, we have fantastic rakeback deals that can be obtained contacting our managers.