BetRivers Poker’s Multi-State Summer Series had reached its halfway point, with 38 of 96 events completed, and the opening results were already running ahead of the guarantees. According to pokerfuse, the $100 Series Starter drew 187 players and paid out $17,297 against a $12,500 guarantee, while the $200 Summer Stack returned $24,310 after beating an $18,000 guarantee.
The early surge has not been limited to the first two events. In the Silver bracket, some tournaments have drawn as many as 319 players, with prize pools well in excess of expectations.
The festival, which runs from Aug. 2 to 16, was previewed as a 15-day series with 96 championship events and more than $450,000 in guaranteed prizes for registered players in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Delaware and West Virginia. The schedule spans buy-ins from as low as $3 in Silver to as high as $200 in Gold, and mixes deepstack, turbo, hyper turbo, six-max and progressive knockout formats.
The coming stretch is weighted toward Sunday, with four events singled out as the main attractions and more than 50 tournaments scheduled over the next 10 days. The centrepiece is the $200 MSS Main Event, which carries a $35,000 guarantee and is described as by far the biggest event in the series. A $20 version of the same main event offers a $6,000 guarantee for smaller bankrolls.
The series also has Gold and Silver leaderboards, with a combined $10,000 in prize money. On the Gold board, johnynewaza_380300 led with 136.04 points, less than a point ahead of SlotsVIP and about 12 points clear of moontime. On the Silver board, ValueMaster was top with 113.88 points, while Liebro was the only other player above 100 and Chip Gaines sat third on 95.57.
BetRivers has also reserved a trophy for each of the 96 champions.
