Two weeks, 94 tournaments
September 15 marks the start of the Microgaming Poker Network’s (MPN) Universal Championship of Poker 2019 (UCOP). The online poker tournament series features 94 events and more than €1m in guaranteed prize pools.
Most of the tournaments are of the No-Limit Hold ‘Em type, with variations including deepstack, bounty, rebuys, big antes, booster, and six-max. There are also some Pot-Limit Omaha events scheduled.
94 events and more than €1m in guaranteed prize pools
The UCOP will run until September 29 and will be accessible from any of the poker rooms on the network. There are 16 poker rooms on MPN, including some well-known names such as 32Red, Betsson, and Betsafe. The complete schedule can by found on MPN’s UCOP page.
Fewest points wins
In addition to the regular prize money for cashing in the tournaments, players will compete for ranking on the UCOP leaderboard. Unlike most tournament series leaderboards, where the goal is to amass as many points as possible, the goal for the UCOP is to have the fewest points.
points increase for every finishing position in the tournament
The winner of a UCOP event earns one point. Second place earns two points, third place earns three, and so on. Normally, players who don’t cash don’t receive points, but that would benefit them in the UCOP. Therefore, the points increase for every finishing position in the tournament.
Players who do not participate in a tournament receive points equaling the number of entries plus one. This is to avoid players receiving zero points and therefore benefiting from not playing. Each player’s worst 15 scores will be removed from their total.
Free seats and bonus prizes
The top 20 players on the leaderboard at the end of UCOP will win prizes. First place will receive a €1,550 online tournament tickets package, a €1,500 MPN Poker Tour package, €1,000 cash, and a Player’s Choice Prize. The latter can be an additional one of the other three prizes. The winner will also receive the grandiose title of Greatest Poker Player in the Universe and a trophy.
The MPN poker rooms will also give away free tickets to the €110 UCOP Main Event, which will take place on September 29 and has a €100,000 guaranteed prize pool. It will take some grinding to earn the free seat, but whoever accomplishes one of the following this month will be granted a seat:
– Play 1,000 regular Sit-and-Gos with buy-ins of €20 or higher (Fish Party excluded)
– Play 25,000 hands of €50NL (€0.25/€0.50 No-Limit Hold ‘Em) or higher
– Play 25,000 hands of €50PLO (€0.25/€0.50 Pot-Limit Omaha) or higher
All UCOP event winners will get to play in a freeroll, the Tournament of Champions. This will be held on October 6 and will award online tournament ticket prizes to the top eight finishers.