I cannot begin to tell you how jealous I am of those of you living in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Michigan (and Nevada and Delaware, but those aren’t totally relevant for our purposes right now). I used to play online poker every day. I wasn’t that good – probably break even at micro-low stakes before bonuses – but it was a fun hobby. But the last ten years have been a poker void where I live and I can only look to your states with longing and sigh. And for all of you with access to PokerStars, you have a big tournament to look forward to later this month.
On October 24, PokerStars PA, PokerStars MI, and PokerStars NJ will all host a two-day event beginning at 5:00pm ET. In Pennsylvania, it’s called Pennsyl-MANIA, while the other two states have the Michigan Classic and New Jersey Classic, respectively. They are all effectively the same tournament, despite the name differences.
Each tournament has a $300 buy-in and have $700,000 in combined guaranteed prize pools: $350,000 for Pennsylvania, $250,000 for Michigan, and $100,000 for New Jersey.
Satellites have already started for the three tournaments with price points as low as $15 (that would be more my speed). The PokerStars sites are also running special $3 Spin & Go’s that give players the chance to win entries into the events.
That’s really about it. None of these are a tournament series, just a single event, so there is not much analysis necessary. Play a little No-Limit Hold’em with some healthy guaranteed prize pools for US-based PokerStars sites.
It was just a couple weeks ago that Pennsylvania, Michigan, and New Jersey wrapped up their PokerStars Championships of Online Poker (COOPs). Across all three COOPs (PACOOP, MICOOP, and NJCOOP), players won $5.27 million, about three-quarters of a million dollars more than the total guarantees.
Almost half of that came from PACOOP, which awarded $2.38m to players. The 69-event series drew more than 25,000 entries. MICOOP attracted over 18,000 entries across 68 events, generating $1.78 million in prize money. NJCOOP awarded $1.1 million in prizes with nearly 10,600 entries over 60 events. All three COOPs beat their guarantees.
Remember, only people physically located in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and New Jersey can play on PokerStars in their respective states. You do not have to be a resident of the states, just located there when playing. So if you live in New York and work in New Jersey, just hang out at the office in a couple Sundays and play a little poker.