There could be a number of reasons why many people were, at some point, turned off by Paradise. I know I was....the prize pools just weren't really anything exciting compared to what some of the other sites were offering on a daily basis. The $35k/$50k guaranteed nightly $30 rebuy tournament was the only one that really seemed to be much of a draw.

That is now a thing of the past, though. Paradise Poker has become one of the best sites out there for big daily prize pools, and in the last week or so, those prize pools have been bigger than ever.

The $60k guaranteed last night (recently changed from the $50k guaranteed, which was formerly the $35k guaranteed) had 1,064 entries and a prizepool of $89,340. The night before, there were over 1,100 entrants and the prizepool was over $90k. The "Pearl" tournament, a nightly $150 buy in that has always attracted several ranked players, had over 200 entrants and a prizepool of over $30k last night, making it (to my knowledge) the richest Pearl tournament in this history of Paradise Poker. The afternoon $30k guaranteed (formerly the $20k guaranteed) $30 rebuy has also grown considerably, with prizepools approaching $40k.

If it's not enough that the mainstays are growing, Paradise has recently added some new tournaments as well. The daily "Atlantic" tournament, a $300 buy in, now attracts nearly 100 entries every day. Several PocketFivers have fared well in this one, including JOEYTHEB, who has already won it several times. Last Thursday was the inaugural "Dime Time," a bi-weekly $1,000 buy in event. Colson10 took down first prize in it, representing P5s well. There is also a new $250 tournament every night, and it is called "Salt Water." It is probably not much of a surprise that soupie already won it, even though it has only been running this week!

There's also a new weekly tournament called "Football" every Monday night, and it's a $150 buy in with a $100k guarantee. There has been an overlay almost every week. HATJR, cory!, and brsavage have all come within a couple spots of taking down the whole thing.

While the Masters IV is still a long way off, 375 players have already won their seat in this $1,000 tournament, to be held on January 15, 2006. Paradise is guaranteeing a million dollars, but the prize pool will likely be quite a bit bigger. Several PocketFivers have made the final table in the last two Masters main events. The last two winners were foshio and brett ho.

Plenty of other PocketFivers and ranked players have been taking advantage of the newly increased opportunities to make money on this site, including Paushtero and trackcitylad, whoboth won a $60k guaranteed last week, the first week it was offered.

There's a lot more money than there used to be floating around on Paradise. If you haven't been playing there, now might be a good time to take a shot.