"NFT trophies are great for the industry" - Jaime Staples

We chat to the partypoker pro about the MILLIONS Online festival and the NFTs that the winners will receive in the series.

MILLIONS Online takes place during a lot of other festivals in the online calendar. Why should poker players choose this series over the rest?

Jaime Staples: This is the best you can get! MILLIONS Online has well-structured tournaments with limited late reg, limited re-entry, good prize pools, and you get to play into the money on Day 1s. It’s tournament poker as it should be.

In addition, if you win, you get the money of course, but also in some cases an NFT! We are adding some value to the series and trying to create a little something special for the champions of the events; a club of MILLIONS Online winners that get to play in a freeroll with $20k worth of prizes and hold the limited NFT. If you like poker, you don’t want to miss it.

It’s unusual to see an online festival where the bulk of the events are over $1k buy-ins; in fact, most have micro versions of every event in tiers. 

Jaime Staples: It can get noisy out there in the online poker space, with so many different festivals and series going on all the time. I quite like the return to the roots that PartyPoker has gone with for this year's MILLIONS Online series. We have a feature event and a mini version. There are the big flighted events and the Main Events as well. As you mention, it forces people to focus on getting into the big events, just like how it used to be where everyone would play the same tournament. I think it’s a good format and what I prefer.

The Main Event is a phased event rather than having a combined Day 1. What are your thoughts on that, because it is not the norm online?

Jaime Staples: Phased tournaments are great for recreational players, and yet do not create a disadvantage for pros or high-volume grinders. To play the smaller phases, you need to play smaller buy-ins, and spend time, so it allows those with smaller bankrolls to essentially play the Main Event for $320 as opposed to $3,200. The very best players out there don't bother playing the small flights, because they have too many other high-stakes things to play, so those early stages are a softer start to the main tournament. It’s a format we have every week with the $1,050 PartyPoker Grand and it makes it a can’t-miss tournament (one I have won recently!) So yeah, I am a massive fan of the phase format. It’s fair, but more flexible for the newer player.

"NFTs are digital trophies"

One thing I really like about Party is they have 7-max MTTs and there are two 7-max events. I think 7-max is more fun than 6/8/9-max. What do you think of it?

Jaime Staples: My favourite is 8-max, but 7-max is next in the order for me, followed by 6-max, then 9-max. I always think it’s a balance between grindability, with the ability to play a bunch of tables, and fun poker, where you play a lot of hands. I find 7-max and 8-max tables are a big improvement on 9-max, and 6-max is a little too fast for me. It’s good to have 7-max as a variant.

To the poker players out there who do not follow crypto, can you sell us the benefits of being able to win an NFT in this series?

Jaime Staples: There is the direct monetary value for the NFT winners, which is a $5k package freeroll for MILLIONS UK for four winners, worth $20k in total.

I view our NFT collection winners as a few things. They are members of a club of champions and important people to our community. I think it’s cool to differentiate those with history and those yet to create any.

The Ape holders are also in for some utility. Having one of the first would be a big deal, putting you in a prestigious and limited group. To me, the best part is that they are a total freeroll!

The great news is it costs nothing to make these, and no money comes out of the prize pool to give them away. It's a freebie for those that want to take part and that is so great.

"NFTs are a great opportunity for poker"

Do you think these NFTs will have any future monetary value?

Jaime Staples: Right now, there is a $5k freeroll split between 52 people. That's the current pure monetary value, but will they hold social value? Will more monetary value be added in the future? Who knows? I would like to hold one to find out!

In what other ways do you see crypto and NFTs changing the online poker landscape?

Jaime Staples: It depends on if players like them. I love the idea. This is a digital trophy to me, and an ability to collect achievements and be part of a community. Will other players feel the same? Time will tell. There must be a few of us out there that love this stuff!

The big kicker here is if fellow players such as myself get excited about this, then this is a great opportunity for the poker industry. They are incredibly affordable compared to for example a ticket bonus going out to everyone for $1 million total spend.

If this proves more efficient, and players like it, the business side of poker will absolutely get behind it. Maybe one day poker joins conventional gaming in generating revenue from items, or NFT marketplace activity, and rake becomes a secondary attribute to poker’s success. A man can dream. This is a small step towards a utopian future like that. Let's see!

Millions ONLINE returns this week

partypoker's most prestigious series returns this week with a total prize pool of more than $6M given away in 15 tournaments, all coming with multiple starting days so players have ample time to find a good slot during these next weeks.

Starting days of the showpiece Main Event, coming with a 2M GTD for a buy-in of $3,200, are running every Sunday during the series and will be offered all the way until Monday, September 26, right before Day 2 is played out, ahead of the Final Table on September 27 which will be live-streamed on partypoker's Twitch channel as well.

Of course, that's a steep ask for most of the players so as usual there's loads of chances for you to qualify for a fraction of the buy-in thanks to special satellites starting at just $0.01, with several players like Gareth "Gaz the Hippy" Smirthwaite and Vitaly Polikarpov, having won their way into the MILLIONS Online Main Event last year with just a cent.

Check out the full MILLION Online schedule right here

Special MILLIONS Online SPINS return

On top of that, partypoker is also running special MILLIONS Online SPINS once again, with the special edition tournaments rewarding the winners with either $60 cash or, if a multiplier is hit, MILLIONS Online tickets worth up to $3,200.

That's a great chance for everyone to bag a seat in the MILLIONS Online against just two opponents, for a buy-in of $30 and qualifying chances running around the clock throughout the entire series.

Also don't forget that partypoker is still running their Party Mix promotion for all of September where you can bag SPINS tickets and freeroll entries every day of the week by just receiving the hole cards of the month:

Get your guaranteed Party Mix prize today!