PokerStars has announced the return of its popular low stakes tournament series, MicroMillions, not that it was ever in doubt. MicroMillions 14 will be held July 16th through July 29th on PokerStars.com and will feature 121 events with buy-ins ranging from $0.11 (yes, eleven cents) to $22. Even I can afford that. Hell, if I didn’t live in the United States of America, Home of the Free©, I might even play in two events!
There will be four events on the first day of MicroMillions 14:
MicroMillions-01: $3.30 No-Limit Hold’em [Progressive KO] – $50,000 guaranteed prize pool
MicroMillions-02: $5.50 No-Limit Omaha 8 [6-Max] – $20,000 guaranteed prize pool
MicroMillions-03: $0.11 plus Re-buys No-Limit Hold’em [6-Max, Hyper-Active] – $10,000 guaranteed prize pool
MicroMillions-04: $5.50 No-Limit Hold’em [8-Max], $20,000 guaranteed prize pool
Two lucky players will also be awarded $30,000 Platinum Passes, which include a $25,000 seat in January’s PokerStars Players No Limit Hold’em Championship (PSPC), six night’s lodging in the Bahamas, and $2,500 for travel and expenses. Everyone who plays in at least five MicroMillions events will be entered into an All-In Shootout to take place on July 31st. The top two finishers in the tournament (you don’t generally need to even be online for it, as everyone is put all-in every hand) win the Platinum Passes.
Those playing in the MicroMillions may also get lucky and receive free MicroMillions tickets. PokerStars will drop $50,000 worth of tickets randomly throughout the series.
As one would expect, there will be special Spin & Go’s running through the MicroMillions 14 in which players can win seats in the $22 Main Event. These Spin & Go’s cost just $0.50 to enter and, unlike what we normally see in special Spin & Go’s, the top prize is not the tournament seat. Here is a breakdown of the prizes and their probabilities:
$6,000 cash – 1 in 1,000,000
$22 MicroMillions Main Event entry – 3,000 in 1,000,000
$5.50 MicroMillions ticket – 15,000 in 1,000,000
$3.30 MicroMillions ticket – 25,000 in 1,000,000
$2 cash – 186,001 in 1,000,000
$1 cash – 770,998 in 1,000,000
As you can see, the vast majority of the time – 95.7 percent – the Spin & Go will function largely as a regular Spin & Go, awarding 2x or 4x the buy-in as the prize pool. After that, there are slight chances to win MicroMillions tickets with an almost zero chance of winning $6,000 cash.
BUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE!
PokerStars is also hosting a separate MicroMillions for players on the Spain, France, and Portugal shared liquidity sites (Pokerstars.es, PokerStars.fr, PokerStars.pt). Buy-ins there will be from €0.50 to €50 and there will be 87 events with €2 million in guaranteed prize pools. The €50 Main Event for the shared European liquidity MicroMillions will be on July 29th and will have a €200,000 guaranteed prize pool.
