Main article content
The $1 BLAST on 888poker no longer has a $1,000,000 jackpot. The official BLAST rules page on 888poker.com now lists $10,000 as the top prize pool for the $1 game, and the odds for most of the other multipliers have moved too.
The $1 game used to be the "BLAST $1,000,000 Special Edition". Its top multiplier was 1,000,000x and came up once in every 10 million games. Now the top multiplier is 10,000x, worth $10,000, and it comes up once in every million. We could not find an announcement from 888 about the change.
What Changed in the $1 BLAST
BLAST is 888's three-handed jackpot sit and go. Before the cards are dealt, the game draws a multiplier that sets the prize pool, from 2x the buy-in up to the top multiplier. The details are on the official BLAST rules page.
Regular BLAST games top out at 10,000x. The $1 game used to run a Special Edition with a 1,000,000x multiplier instead. The official rules page now lists it like the rest, as a plain $1 BLAST with a 10,000x top multiplier. The BLAST lobby shows the same, with $10,000 on the $1 card.
The BLAST lobby on 888. The $1 BLAST is the third card in the top row, with a $10,000 top prize pool.
The $1 BLAST Odds, Before and After
Here is the $1 game before and after the change. The prize pools are for a $1 buy-in.
| Multiplier | Prize pool | Before | Now |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2x | $2 | 54.64% | 47.50% |
| 3x | $3 | 38.58% | 45.57% |
| 5x | $5 | 6.30% | 6.25% |
| 10x | $10 | 0.42% | 0.58% |
| 25x | $25 | 0.06% | 0.10% |
| 100x | $100 | 0.008% | 0.008% |
| Top Multiplier | $1M to $10K | 1/10,000,000 | 1/1,000,000 |
Chance of each multiplier per game, rounded. 888 lists these as "x in 1,000,000" (the old table used "x in 10,000,000"). Source: 888's official BLAST rules page, current and previous versions.
What It Means at the Table
The jackpot is 100 times smaller and 10 times more likely to show up. A $10,000 pool still pays 70/20/10 to the three players, so $7,000, $2,000 and $1,000.
The bigger change for everyday play is in the middle. A plain 2x pool is less common (47.5% of games, down from 54.6%) and 3x is more common (45.6%, up from 38.6%). Put together, about 52.5% of $1 games now draw a pool of 3x or more, against 45.4% before. 10x and 25x pools also come up a little more often. Games at 2x, 3x and 5x are winner takes all, so a bigger pool matters to whoever wins.
The fee did not change. 888 lists 9% of the buy-in as the fee for the $1 game before and after, and by our math the average return to players is about 91% on both tables. What moved is the split: less of that return sits in a jackpot almost nobody sees, and more in 3x and 10x games.
What We Don't Know Yet
We don't know when 888 made the change, and 888 has not said why. The "Special Edition" label suggests a promotion that has ended, but that is a guess.
The change is on 888poker.com, the main international site, which lists prices in dollars. If you play BLAST, check the top prize in your own lobby before you sit down.
We will update this article if 888 confirms when or why it changed.
Players who want to see what 888poker offers through Universal Poker can check the 888poker deal page.
