Mass. lottery to hold simulated poker tournament at TD Garden

MASS. LOTTERY TO HOLD $10,000,000 HOLD’EM POKER® TOURNAMENT

More than $14 million in prizes to be awarded, including a $10 million grand prize,

in April 6 event at the TD Garden

BRAINTREE, MA – (February 27, 2013) The Massachusetts State Lottery today announced the date for the long-awaited tournament that officially concludes its “$10,000,000 HOLD’EM POKER^®” instant game – a $10 ticket launched in 2005.

On the evening of April 6, 2013, 560 Lottery players will convene at the TD Garden in Boston to participate in the $10,000,000 HOLD’EM POKER^® Tournament, which will simulate an actual poker tournament with four rounds of Hold’Em poker dealt; however, unlike an actual tournament, there is no poker skill required in the Lottery’s event because all cards will be randomly assigned to the participants with the outcome of every hand determined through a secure drawing process.

Participants with the best five-card poker hand within their group for each round will advance to the next round of the tournament. There will be three elimination rounds to determine the four participants who will advance to the Championship Round.

Each of the 560 Tournament participants is guaranteed a $2,000 Round One prize; 64 participants will each win $10,000 in Round Two; 12 will receive $50,000 prizes in Round Three; and in the final Championship Round, three participants will win $1 million and one will emerge as the Tournament Champion, collecting the $10 million Grand Prize.

Drawings for consolation prizes will take place throughout the evening for participants that do not advance to later Rounds. The event is expected to last a total of three hours and draw over 1,100 attendees. Players who were selected as participants, but are unable to attend the Tournament will be able to send representatives in their place; however, those who do not attend and do not send a representative to participate on their behalf will be assigned a stand-in representative. Participants, or their representatives, must be present to win any consolation

prizes awarded during the event, but participants that do not attend and are assigned a stand-in will still receive any cash that is due to them as a result of the $10,000,000 HOLD’EM POKER^® Tournament.

At the time of the $10,000,000 HOLD’EM POKER^® instant ticket’s launch in March 2005, the $10 game boasted a record-breaking prize structure with over $645 million in prizes, including a grand prize of $10 million – which then was the largest single instant ticket prize in U.S. lottery history. Massachusetts has since launched instant tickets with $20 million prize offerings and more robust prize structures.

While nearly seven and a half years elapsed before the 80.6 million tickets printed were sold, the $10,000,000 HOLD’EM POKER^® instant ticket established a loyal player base in the market.  Sales for the niche “extended play” game, which capitalized on the Hold’Em Poker play style that gained worldwide appeal due largely to televised tournaments like the World Poker Tour™, exceeded $800 million and generated over $97.8 million in net return to the Commonwealth for cities and towns.

In addition to winning cash prizes in the $10,000,000 HOLD’EM POKER^® instant ticket, players also had the chance to win World Poker Tour™ merchandise prize packs.  Those who won and claimed these merchandise prize packs were automatically entered into drawings to select the Tournament participants.  For every 123 prize pack claims received, the Lottery randomly selected one player participate in the Tournament. A total of 560 players were selected to participate.

For a complete list of Tournament Participants and additional information on the $10,000,000 HOLD’EM POKER^® Tournament, visit: http://tinyurl.com/MALotteryHoldEmTournament

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