Pokerstars.com is one of the most illustrious online poker rooms in the world. The main face leading its advertising campaigns is none other than Daniel Negreanu and a large number of professional players as well as amateur players use it to improve their game.
Its tournaments are arguably the biggest attraction of the site with a great number of them catering for many tastes, styles and standards. Here is a brief summary of the online tournaments Pokerstars.com has available.
Sunday Million
This tournament occurs on a weekly basis every Sunday. The buy-in is $215 and the start time is 16:30 ET. The guaranteed prize pool is $1.5 million. Online players from all over the world and from all sorts of poker backgrounds enter this tournament every week. On average it attracts over 7,000 players and even the professionals get involved. Satellites run throughout the week so if you can’t afford the buy-in then the cheaper satellites have a buy-in of just $2.20 or even just 400 FPP points.
Sunday Warm Up
If you fancy having a game that gets you into the mood ahead of the big Sunday Million tournament then this is the choice for you. Starting at 13:00 ET the buy-in is $215 and it is perfectly timed to allow you to use it as a tournament to stretch your legs and find your rhythm ahead of the Sunday Million. The average field of players is just over 2,500 so there is more of a chance for you to win some cash prizes. Its satellite tournaments run throughout the week with a range of different buy-ins.
Sunday Majors
These consist of three major tournaments that are all hosted on a Sunday. They include the Sunday 1/4 Million, Sunday 500 and the Sunday Second Chance.
The Sunday 1/4 Million has a low buy in of just $11. There is a guaranteed prize pool of $250,000 and it begins at 15:30 ET. The high prize money and small buy in makes this very tempting.
The Sunday 500 costs slightly more at, as the name suggests, $500 + $30 for the buy-in. In turn the prize pool is much more lucrative at $500,000 at least and it begins at 17:30 ET. Due to the larger buy-in this tournament is gaining a reputation across the board and its popularity is snowballing.
The Sunday Second Chance is technically seen as the insurance policy for the Sunday Million. It starts at 18:30 ET so lures in those eliminated early on from the Sunday Million. The buy-in is still a reasonable size at $215 but the prize pool is $200,000 which makes it a nice little tournament to finish on if the Sunday Million doesn’t quite work out well.
Regional Championships of Online Poker
This series of 13 tournaments covers a range of geographical areas for players to compete against other people in their region. The various zones include the American Championship which is only eligible for Americans, Baltics Championship which is exclusive to players from Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia plus the UK and Ireland Championship which is only open to British and Irish residents. There are 11 events for each zone that span the whole year.
More than $7 million is handed out in prize money across the whole width of regional championships and each region has its own main event so the winner from each region can be determined overall.
Spring Championship of Online Poker – All Stakes
Otherwise known as SCOOP, this tournament is another huge competition with the total prize pool for 2010 exceeding $67 million. The main event saw 1st place walk away with over $1.1 million! Over 180 events have been played in its history with 177,875 unique players taking part in the tournament since its inception. The games include Omaha, Texas Hold’em, Stud, Horse and 8 Game. The buy-ins ranged from low to medium to high so that every level of player could enter. Several famous names including George Danzer, Jose Ignacio Barbero and Alexey Makarov have experienced success in the tournament.
World Championship of Online Poker
The WCOOP saw the winner take home $2.2 million from a prize pool that breached the $12 million mark. The $5,200 buy-in made sure this tournament was only open to the crème de la crème of the poker world. Jose Ignacio Barbero popped up with more success in this tournament and there were final table victories for Jason Mercier and Anders Hoyer Beg. The tournament spanned 23 days with 62 events taking place.
World Cup of Poker VI
This tournament is fairly simplistic. Nations put forward their best poker players and compete to win the title of the best poker nation in the world. Previous winners include Germany, USA and Canada. The last tournament saw Chinese Taipei win it and a first prize of $100,000. This tournament is more about the prestige than the money. Big names such as Daniel Negreanu and Jan Heitmann have been associated with this tournament in the past so it holds a hefty reputation. The last tournament saw 54 nations enter at the early qualification stage which highlights poker’s ever-growing popularity.
World Blogger Championship of Online Poker
This year’s WBCOOP saw seven events take place (six qualifiers and a final main event), each revolving around a different variation of poker e.g. Texas Hold’em, Omaha, Stud etc. 2,062 bloggers gathered for the final main event and there were SCOOP tickets awarded for every player finishing down to 136th place. The tournament was free to enter for verified bloggers.
Whatever you want from your Poke Stars experience every angle is covered. There are poker games to suit all tastes and it really is a comprehensive poker gaming directory.
