When you run a contest site, some tourneys fill up faster than others. If you never guarantee prizes, then it doesn’t matter all that much, but if you prefer to be aggressive with guarantees like we do, it can be a problem.

Prizes for the “high expectation” tournament, The BIG One, on September 21-22 at Laurel Park are guaranteed. They include 10 NHC seats, five Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge entries, five Pegasus Betting Challenge entries…plus a guaranteed $75,000 in cash. We need to fill 50 slots in the field via qualifiers, and right now we are behind schedule.

This is a problem for us…but for you, it’s an opportunity.

Based on current participation levels in qualifiers for The BIG One, we are looking at a loss in the mid five figures in order for us to cover the cost of the guaranteed prizes and amenities (hotel accommodations, travel stipend, et al.). Rest assured, we are 100% ready to eat that loss because it was we who made the guarantee, and because that’s what we do. We don’t penalize the players if we miscalculate.

We are continuing to offer qualifiers to The BIG One each week, and to get up to 50 players by September 21, we will immediately begin offering two guaranteed packages per week starting this Sunday. The prize pool, meanwhile, is not going to be reduced.

The bottom line: The 2019 edition of The BIG One figures to be an even better deal for players than we thought it would be when we drew up our prize allocations for it. As it stands now, The BIG One entrants will be playing for prizes worth more — significantly more — than what players have collectively put in to it.

As always, you can continue to monitor week-by-week purse status and qualifier updates at this page:

The BIG One Status Page

But if you’ve entertained notions of ever playing in The BIG One (or heard some of the kind comments of those who have played in it in the past), there’s not a better, more value-enriched time to make that happen than right now.