Site issues apology, announces refunds
The long-awaited return of the partypoker MILLION online poker tournament foundered on Sunday, November 3, due to a system error that ultimately forced the cancellation of the entire event.
The unfortunate incident marred a strong buildup by partypoker in its efforts to reestablish itself as the leading online destination for Sunday tournament day, traditionally the busiest day in any online poker week.
a generous refund plan that will result in approximately an additional $600,000 in cash and future entries given to affected players
partypoker remained undeterred, however, quickly announcing a generous refund plan that will result in approximately an additional $600,000 in cash and future entries given to affected players. A parallel “MICRO” event with a smaller buy-in and similar format was also affected and subsequently canceled.
The site also vowed to continue its Sunday MILLION plans. In the early and middle 2000’s, party’s MILLION was the largest single weekly poker event offered online.
Multi-flight format produced issue
partypoker was forced to cancel the Day 2 conclusion of the MILLION event after discovering that surviving players from the fourth and final opening-day flight, Day 1D, had not been ported over to the Day 2 field. With action on Day 2 already underway, partypoker had no choice but to cancel the tourney.
The multi-flight approach gave participants a chance to avoid a problem the earlier MILLION event endured: The pre-2007 one-day event ran so long it demanded 18-20 hours of constant online play.
partypoker paused the tourney after being notified by dozens of affected players. The decision to cancel was made after verifying there was no easy way to add the missing players nor to unwind the early levels of Day 2 play. The site did not elaborate on whether an automated process or manual employee oversight caused the participant omissions.
Multi-part refunds within 24 hours
partypoker quickly announced a generous, multi-part refund plan.
Survivors from the Day 1A/1B/1C flights who busted early on Day 2 will keep their cashes. All other players, including the missing Day 1D field, will split most of the remaining $1 million prize pool. Half of that remaining pool will be distributed evenly, with the other half meted out according to chip count to reward those who had done exceptionally well.
Survivors from the Day 1A/1B/1C flights who busted early on Day 2 will keep their cashes
All affected players will also receive a $215 entry into a future MILLION event. These extra entries account for most of the $600,000 hit partypoker will incur.
partypoker quickly addressed the situation on social media, writing: “Please accept our sincerest apologies for the inconvenience. 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. Payouts will be made as fast as possible.”