PokerStars has released the schedule for the New Jersey Championship of Online Poker (NJCOOP), a 46-event tournament series featuring more than $1.2 million in guaranteed prize pools. Of course, it is only open to people who can play from within New Jersey’s borders, but you knew that already. NJCOOP will run from September 30th through October 16th.
The highlight of the NJCOOP is of course the $500 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em Main Event, which will run for two days, the weekend of October 14th and October 15th. There are other interesting tournaments, though, which vary from the standard fare of No-Limit Hold’em and Omaha freezeouts:
Bubble Rush (Tuesday, October 3rd – $100 No-Limit Hold’em) – it can be a pain in the ass to play for hours only to not even make the money, so Bubble Rush tournaments are accelerated in the beginning, with the goal of reaching the money within an hour. After that, the blind levels go back to normal so that competitors can still have a lot of play with their built-up chip stacks.
Win the Button (multiple) – it is exactly what it sounds like: the winner of the pot is put the dealer’s position – the button – on the next hand. The idea here is to make winning a pot even more rewarding that the actual chips acquired during the hand, so plays may be more aggressive than normal, leading to more exciting action.
Zoom Poker (Saturday, October 14th – $75 No-Limit Hold’em) – players are whisked away to a new table once they are out of a hand, whether it is by folding or going all the way through showdown. No more waiting for everyone to play the hand out after you fold pre-flop.
Speed-Down (Monday, October 2nd – $100 No-Limit Hold’em) – I’ll be honest here, I have no idea what this is. I’ve tried looking on the PokerStars website and I’ve tried Googling and I have come up empty. Perhaps it’s a cousin of the Bubble Rush format, with blinds structures slowing down as the tournament goes on?
Most tournaments in the New Jersey Championship of Online Poker have buy-ins from $75 to $300, but in addition to the $500 Main Event, a couple events top that range. On Monday, October 9th, is the $500 Pot-Limit Omaha High Roller Six-Max event with a $30,000 guaranteed prized pool and the very next day, PokerStars New Jersey is hosting the $1,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em High Roller tourney with an $80,000 guarantee.
In addition to the regular NJCOOP schedule, PokerStars NJ is offering its players daily Second Chance Freerolls. Players who are eliminated from a NJCOOP event without making the money will receive a ticket to one of these freerolls which will award at least $1,500 in tickets to NJCOOP events or satellites. There are five tournaments which do not make players eligible for Second Chance Freerolls: the three Progressive SuperKO events, as they do not follow a regular payout structure and the final two events of the series, as there would be no point to a Second Chance Freeroll that awards NJCOOP tickets.
