Jan 03, 2018  The 2017 Punta Cana Poker Classic, sponsored by Americas Cardroom, is in the books once again. Our team attended this event that was held at the luxurious Melia Caribe Tropical in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. If you were at this event — you will be. Top 5 EPIC Flops Poker Legends - Duration: 20:42. Partypoker LIVE 793,185 views.

I’m not playing it today, but I am looking in on the first of five bi-weekly satellites on Bovada to the Punta Cana Poker Classic in November.

Each of the satellites is doling out a guaranteed three $5,500 packages (including main event entry; acommodations, food, and ground transport for two to the venue; and $1,670 for travel expenses). Only three packages are awarded, the rest of the prize money is packaged in $2,000 increments. The first game’s approaching the end of the third hour of play as I write, and it’s down to about 50 of the original 207 entrants, with the Punta Cana packages, seventeen $2,000 cash prizes, and am eighteenth cash prize of $1,250 in the prize pool. Median stack at this point is about 15BB, with the max at 76BB.

I like the Survivor-tournament payout structure. Most of the players not winning the package are going to get +640% ROI on their buy-in. Even with the field paying only 10% of the players (the $100K that started a half-hour earlier pays 15%), the expected ROI for those cashing is much higher. By comparison, you’d need to win about $1,200 in today’s $162 entry $100K to make the same ROI, and that means making it to the final two tables in a 1,260-entry tournament; beating 98.5% of the field, as opposed to 90%.

If I made it to the money in the satellite, I might intentionally go out just to get the sure cash, even with tickets from Portland to Punta Cana going for less than $500 RT.

UPDATE: The Punta Cana satellite hit the money after about four hours, with the $100K busting the bubble at four-and-a-half, practically at the same time, since the $100K started half-an-hour earlier. Minimum ROI for the satty was +360%, with most of the rest of those cashing making the aforementioned +640% ROI. Minimum ROI in the $100K was +51%. At the time the bubbles broke, the median chip stack for the satellite was 42K; it was 29K in the $100K (with both tournaments starting at 5K). The satellite completed in a little more than five-and-a-half hours. At six hours of play, the $100K is down to the last four tables, with players from here on out making at least +310% ROI (and the potential for as much as +19,400%, $31,666).

UPDATE 2: The $100K made it to two tables after six hours and forty-five minutes.

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CORRECTION: The reference to the frequency of the satellites was corrected from “weekly” to “bi-weekly”.