PokerStars, Pennsylvania’s lone up-and-running online poker operator, is bringing one of its marquee online poker series to the Keystone State.
Beginning on Saturday, April 4, the PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker will be bringing PA poker players 17 days worth of action with 50 events and $2 million in guaranteed prize money.
The 50 events are broken into two tiers, a “High” buy-in and a “Low” buy-in, for a total of 100 tournaments with buy-ins ranging from $5 up to $500.
PokerStars has set the stage for PASCOOP to be the biggest of its four major series thus far. The$2 million total guarantee is far-and-away the largest ‘Stars has offered in PA, plus the Main Event High looks to be a record breaker in terms of prize pool and first-place prize money offered. Given the way traffic on the site has been humming since stay-at-home orders became prevalent due to the COVID-19 situation, PokerStars shouldn’t have to worry much about overlay.
Two main events, one record sure to fall
On the final Sunday of the series, April 19, there will be a pair of two-day PASCOOP Main Events. The Main Event Low is a $50 buy-in with a $50,000 guarantee. The Main Event High is going to be the largest guaranteed tournament in the brief regulated history of Pennsylvania, with a $300 buy-in ($280 + $20 entry fee) and a $200,000 guarantee.
Back in December 2019, the $1.125-million guaranteed PokerStars Championship of Online Poker (PACOOP) announced a $300 buy-in Main Event with a $100,000 guarantee. That was eventually boosted to a $125,000 guarantee after the online poker operator saw the enthusiasm players had for the series. In the end, the tournament generated a total prize pool of $179,200 with “Gyea08” taking home $31,335.64 for first, the largest single prize in PA to date.
For the PASCOOP Main Event High to reach the $200,000, it will need over 714 players. But with the enthusiasm previously shown for the biggest PokerStars PA events, as well as the increase in players resulting from “sheltering in place” tactics, the online poker operator is a big favorite to exceed the guarantee.
Featured events
In addition to the pair of main events, the debut PASCOOP schedule features a number of spotlight events that are sure to bring value to Keystone State grinders.
More than $380,000 of the $2 million guaranteed is available on the first weekend. Highlights include the very first event of the series, the $50,000 guaranteed PASCOOP Warm-Up with a $100 buy-in. On April 5, the Sunday Special SE will have its guarantee bumped up to $70,000 for a $100 buy-in.
A number of the biggest buy-in events outside of the Main Event High take place in the middle of the week. Players will have their eyes on the $250 buy-in Super Tuesday Special Edition on April 7 that offers a $50,000 guarantee. Two days later, the $500 buy-in High Roller Six-Max should feature an elite field of PA grinders battling over another $50k guarantee.
For players who plan on playing the Low buy-in schedule, the $17,500 guaranteed Mini Super Tuesday with a $20 buy-in on April 14 will be popular.
More than just hold’em
The focus of any online poker series is always going to be no-limit hold’em, but the PokerStars software supports far more game types, and some of those poker disciplines are represented on the PASCOOP schedule.
Players can battle for a PASCOOP title in pot-limit Omaha, seven card stud, 8-game mix, and more, with $116,500 of the total guarantee being distributed through the non-hold’em events:
| DATE | EVENT | BUY-IN |
|---|---|---|
| April 5 | PASCOOP-08-H: PLO [6-Max], $15K Gtd | $100 |
| April 5 | PASCOOP-08-L: PLO [6-Max], $5K Gtd | $10 |
| April 6 | PASCOOP-11-H: NLO8 [6-Max], $15K Gtd | $150 |
| April 6 | PASCOOP-11-L: NLO8 [6-Max], $3.5K Gtd | $15 |
| April 9 | PASCOOP-18-H: PLO [8-Max], $15K Gtd | $150 |
| April 9 | PASCOOP-18-L: PLO [8-Max], $4K Gtd | $15 |
| April 10 | PASCOOP-20-H: 8-Game, $17.5K Gtd | $200 |
| April 10 | PASCOOP-20-L: 8-Game, $4K Gtd | $20 |
| April 13 | PASCOOP-31-L: PLO [6-Max, Hyper-Turbo], $20K Gtd | $150 |
| April 13 | PASCOOP-31-H: PLO [6-Max, Hyper-Turbo], $5K Gtd | $15 |
| April 17 | PASCOOP-38-H: Stud Hi/Lo [6-Max, Turbo, Fast Friday SE], $10K Gtd | $50 |
| April 17 | PASCOOP-38-L: Stud Hi/Lo [6-Max, Turbo], $2.5K Gtd | $5 |
Win (or lose) and you’re in
Despite the short lead time on promotion — the schedule was announced only one week in advance of the start of the series — PokerStars seems intent on making this series big.
PokerStars is already running daily qualifiers into both the High and Low Main Event, each High qualifier guaranteeing at least two seats and each Low satellite guaranteeing at least five. PokerStars is also running a $15K Main Event Depositor Freeroll on April 19 that will promise 50 seats into the $300 Main Event High.
There’s a chance to win during PASCOOP even if you lose. Another promotion PokerStars PA is running comes in the form of Daily $1K Second Chance All-In Shootout Freerolls. For players that enter an event but fall short of the money, they will be automatically entered into this daily tournament that could provide players a boost to their bankroll, even after finishing a satellite outside of the money bubble.
The full PASCOOP schedule can be found here.
