The 2000 Hollywood blockbuster Gladiator was nominated for 12 Oscars and walked away with five trophies, but is it as exciting and exhilarating as PartyPoker’s Gladiator Daily Legends tournament? We think not.
The Gladiator is one of our prime time Daily Legends tournaments, shuffling up and dealing every day of the week at 20:05 BST, which gives you ample time to finish work, get something to eat, and prepare to enter the battle against your fellow PartyPoker warriors.
There is a $10,000 guarantee on the Gladiator’s prize pool, although this increases to $15,000 each Sunday! Unless you manage to win your way into the Gladiator via one of the many satellite, which start at only $0.01, you will need to exchange $33 for a 50,000 starting stack. $15 of that buy-in goes straight into the regular prize pool, $15 goes onto the head of each entrant, and there is a $3 rake, which counts towards your weekly cashback.
Lock horns with your foes and send them to the showers to claim their bounty. Half of your opponent’s bounty instantly lands in your account balance, with the remaining 50% added to the bounty on your head, making you a juicier target for anyone still in the hunt for the title. Of course, this happens to other players too, and it is not out of the ordinary to see bounties in excess of $200 up for grabs, particularly at the seven-handed final table.
Each Gladiator entrants steps into the arena armed with 50,000 chips, sits down at a seven-handed table, and fights tooth and nail to blinds that increase every eight minutes. Unlike the movie, where once you are defeated it is game over, Gladiator players at PartyPoker have the option to re-enter for $33 and received a fresh stack of 50,000 chips if they are eliminated during the late registration period. That late registration period ends after the completion of the tenth level. Even the mightiest of warriors sometimes fall but they dust themselves off, and get back up again.
Gladiator Blind Structure During Late Registration
| Level | Small Blind | Big Blind | Ante |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 250 | 500 | 65 |
| 1 | 300 | 600 | 75 |
| 1 | 350 | 700 | 90 |
| 1 | 400 | 800 | 100 |
| 1 | 500 | 1,000 | 125 |
| 1 | 600 | 1,200 | 150 |
| 1 | 700 | 1,400 | 175 |
| 1 | 800 | 1,600 | 200 |
| 1 | 1,000 | 2,000 | 250 |
| 1 | 1,250 | 2,500 | 315 |
A Typical Gladiator Final Table
The July 30, 2023, edition of the Gladiator saw 538 PartyPoker players create a $16,140 prize pool, with $8,070 going into the regular prize pool and shared by the top 89 finishers, and the other $8,070 awarded as bounties.
With bounties included, everyone at the seven-handed final table took home more than $300 for the efforts with the top two finishers reeling in four-figure prizes. Those two players were “RonyRustico” and the champion “Always8lue.”
“RonyRustico” took home $1,378 in total, with our worthy winner padding their bankroll with $2,399. Some 1,375 of the champion’s payout came from the bounty prize pool, showing how important those scalps are in a PKO event.
| Place | Player | Bounties | Prize | Total Prize |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Always8lue | $1,375 | $1,024 | $2,399 |
| 2 | RonyRustico | $356 | $1,022 | $1,378 |
| 3 | JustWinBBer | $169 | $697 | $866 |
| 4 | teteudopapai | $415 | $465 | $880 |
| 5 | R. Pontes | $41 | $315 | $356 |
| 6 | New folder | $207 | $244 | $451 |
| 7 | jojo2240 | $126 | $175 | $301 |
If you cannot win your way into the Gladiator and find the $33 buy-in is outside your bankroll’s constraints, you should hit up the Headhunter, which is a $5.50 buy-in affair that features a similar amazing structure that allows plenty of play but also does not drag on for what seems like a week, leaving your energy sapped as you emerge victoriously.
