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Texas Hold'em has always been bigger than Omaha, but beginning this February, one online poker site is putting them on an equal playing field. Americas Cardroom February 1 announced that beginning this February, all Omaha tables will be added to the mix of cash games eligible for The Beast.
The addition to Americas Cardroom's monthly progressive points race means more players feeding The Beast and more jackpot money handed out every month.
"Our Omaha players have been asking for this, and we're excited to deliver in a big way," stated Michael Harris. "But this isn't just big news for Omaha players. This is huge news for anyone who has ever participated in The Beast. That's because with more players participating in The Beast, the monthly payouts will likely grow by leaps and bounds, and more tournament seats will be given out for our monthly Beast tournament."
The Beast is Americas Cardroom's monthly progressive points race that's funded entirely through online poker jackpot tables. Anyone who sits down at a cash table marked Jackpot automatically becomes part of The Beast competition by earning points through participation in a raked hand. While more points are earned at higher stake levels, everyone participating in the same raked hand earns the same number of points—regardless of how much rake they contributed to the pot.
The Beast leaderboard features two prizes—a cash prize pool and a tournament entry prize pool—and players automatically compete for both prizes by ranking on the leaderboard. Typically, cash prize pools have hit 6-figure territory, and tournament entry prize pools have included seats in tournaments for things like The Punta Cana Poker Classic and other big monthly guarantees. A total of $226,545.81 were awarded in tournament prizes last year and $690,351.19 in cash prizes for a grand total of $916,897 to close the year 2012. And that's only 6 months worth of rewards since it first launched on July 2012".
Because The Beast grows using money generated at Jackpot tables, the more people who play at the jackpot tables, the greater the prize pool, and, in turn, the more people who'll reap the rewards. With Omaha tables added to the mix, poker players can expect to see bigger monthly prize pools than what was featured in 2012.
While players participating at Hold'em jackpot tables automatically contribute a fee to feed the Bad Beat Jackpot in addition to The Beast, Harris notes that no Bad Beat Jackpot fee will be collected from Omaha tables.
