The Monthly Milly: How it Works and How to Win
There are many reasons to play online poker. Some do it for fun, others for the money – but why not both? It’s always more fun to play when there’s a mountain of money waiting to be won, like the guaranteed $1 million that’s up for grabs every month at Bovada Poker. We’re talking about the Monthly Milly, of course. If you haven’t had the chance yet to play this incredibly exciting tournament, here’s everything you need to book your seat at the table.
What is the Monthly Milly?
With all of the demand for Bovada Poker’s daily and weekly tournaments, adding a special monthly tournament to the online poker schedule was a no-brainer. The first Monthly Milly was played on Sunday, January 31, 2021, with $1 million guaranteed in the prize pool and a six-figure payday going to the winner. It was a smash success, of course, and the Monthly Milly has continued to draw big action ever since.
Like most of the major tournaments in online poker betting, the Monthly Milly features the Cadillac of poker: No-Limit Texas Hold’em. To make sure players get the most bang for their buck, everyone starts out with deep stacks of 20,000 chips and the blinds set at 25/50, with a 5-chip ante. That’s 400 big blinds in your starting stack. The blinds go up every 15 minutes, giving you ample time to play big-bet poker before the stacks start dwindling. Late registration is also available through Level 19, and if you bust out early, you can re-enter up to four times. It’s a great structure for professional and recreational players alike – and you’ll find plenty of both at the Bovada Poker tables.
How to Enter the Monthly Milly
Locking down your seat at the Monthly Milly is a piece of cake – even if you’ve never played a hand of poker in your life. Sign up for your free Bovada Poker account if you haven’t already, then log in directly to the poker lobby; our no-download app will show you all the different games you can play, including the full tournament schedule. If you’ll be playing on a desktop computer, you can also download our dedicated poker client and log in from there. This is still the recommended option for aspiring professionals, but you’ll get the same great poker experience using our industry-leading web app. Note: You’ll get an even better experience if you use the Chrome or Safari web browser when you play.
Using the Bovada Poker Lobby to Find the Monthly Milly
The Monthly Milly is just one of thousands of tournaments you’ll find on the Bovada Poker schedule. But you don’t have to dig through a haystack to find that needle; when you enter the poker lobby, just open the Tournaments menu, then use the Tournament Filters to select “Monthly Milly” as your Tournament Type. This will remove all the other tourneys from the list, showing you only the Monthly Milly itself, and all the different satellite tournaments you can enter to win your seat.
Don’t overlook these satellites, either. The buy-in for the Monthly Milly is $535, but if that’s too big for your bankroll, you can qualify for as little as $1.10 by playing in one of these satellite tournaments. Even if you’re a high-roller, satellites are a great way to earn your seat at the table; choose one that fits your bankroll and your schedule, and see if you can turn that spare change into a six-figure payday.
Monthly Milly Poker Tournament Tips
Poker is a great game in and of itself, but the poker boom of the mid-Aughts was built on No-Limit Texas Hold’em tournaments. This is the game that set off the Moneymaker Era, showing the world how it’s possible to play online poker and earn big piles of cash – as long as you have some skill on your side. While luck is a factor anytime you play cards, poker is also a game of skill; employing the right strategies will maximize your chances of taking down the Monthly Milly.
No matter what level of player you are, you can brush up your game by following the useful poker tips and strategies you’ll find in our archive here at Bovada Poker. In the meantime, here’s the most important thing to consider when you’re at the tournament tables: Survival is more important than chip accumulation. In a cash game, you’d happily risk your entire stack on a 52/48 “coin flip” like pocket Deuces versus Ace-King (assuming your opponent is risking the same number of chips). But you can always reload at the cash tables. Putting your tournament life at risk for such a small edge isn’t so wise, even if the Monthly Milly allows you to re-enter up to four times.
You still need to gather chips if you want to win, though. It’s a matter of picking your spots; when the stacks are deep, focus more on making “nut hands” like Ace-high flushes and straights, where you can take down big pots with less risk of going bust. The pressure will build as the blinds go up and stacks get relatively shallow, forcing you to be more aggressive with non-nut hands like top pair. And once your stack gets to around 10-15 big blinds, your choices boil down to moving all-in (sometimes with any two hole cards) or folding.
The more you learn about poker strategy, the more of an edge you can build on your opponents, and the more money you can make in the long run playing tournaments like the Monthly Milly. Make sure to check out our treasure trove of articles here at Bovada Poker. In the meantime, test your skills by entering one of the many Monthly Milly satellites on our schedule, and we’ll see you on the felt.