Partypoker Brings Back Freezeouts: Pros Weigh In

Partypoker is making a significant change by bringing back freezeout tournaments, where players cannot re-enter after being eliminated. This format was popular in the early days of poker but has since been largely replaced by re-entry tournaments. The Christmas Freeze series, consisting of 201 freezeout tournaments with a total guarantee of $10,000,000, will run from December 23 to January 6.

Big Game Tournament

The Big Game tournament, with a $5,200 buy-in and a $1,000,000 guarantee, will be held on December 30. Satellites for the Big Game tournament will be held every two hours from December 16 to 29, with final satellites on December 24 and 30.

Professional Opinions

Professional poker players have mixed feelings about the return of freezeouts. Mikhail Semin, media ambassador for partypoker LIVE, stated that freezeouts are the purest form of poker and he is happy to see their return. Andrey Pateychuk, champion of EPT and WPT, prefers tournaments with limited re-entries over pure freezeouts. Alexander Merzhvinsky, finalist of MILLONS Russia, suggests that having one main freezeout tournament and increasing the number of tournaments can be a good strategy. Anatoly Filatov, Partypoker Pro, hopes that the freezeout format will give amateur players a better chance to win. Arseny Karmatsky, champion of EPT, believes that freezeouts are beneficial for the poker ecosystem as they increase the relative number of amateurs at the tables. Vadim Shlez, champion of WSOP-C Russia, has a negative opinion about Partypoker's return to freezeouts, stating that re-entry tournaments were a positive evolution for the poker industry.