PartyPoker Millions Hit by Unusual Glitch

PartyPoker’s Millions online and LIVE events have become the talk of the poker world with their recent successes in attracting players, but this Sunday saw a curious case of computer gremlins attacking the system, forcing the PartyPoker online crew to rewind the tournament!

The online MILLIONS event, a $5300 buy-in and the largest-ever MTT the site has held, kicked off its day 1A as expected – but the opening phase of tournament failed to end automatically at its expected time, having to be paused manually some three-quarters of an hour later.

With Day1B, 1C and a turbo Day1D still to go in the $6million guaranteed tournament, the PartyPoker team had to make a decision – carry on as normal or find a way to make things fair to those still to play, the playing schedules already long-since announced.

The decision to ‘rewind’ the tournament back to where it ought to have stopped was probably a first in such a huge event – with those who had crashed out in the extra 45 minutes being invited back in, while all the stacks were reset to where they had been at the correct time for stopping.

A strange situation for sure, and PartyPoker took it a step further by offering compensation for those caught up in the unfortunate glitch, with PartyPoker Ambassador Patrick ‘pads1161’ Leonard explaining the situation on Twitter…

Not everyone was happy, of course, but the $350 compensation for a level which should never have been played seems like a decent hourly.

The event has all the usual PartyPoker faces playing – former World Champion boxer Carl Froch mixing with the likes of Leonard, Natalia Breviglieri and Jose Simao, with everyone having their eyes on the $1million guaranteed first prize.

The innovations that PartyPoker have brought to the table recently include the ‘Golden Chip’ last-longer competition – the first 100 online qualifiers battling it out to see who can run deepest to win a $15k package to the MILLIONS Grand Final in Barcelona. Of course, Sundays unintended ‘extra time’ doesn’t count!