50 is the key number here
If there has been any good thing about this year-long pandemic, it is that online poker players have had a wealth of options. Loads of live tournament series have moved online and poker rooms have added even more series to take advantage of the lack of live poker. The only problem with these series sometimes is that the buy-ins can get pricey. Not all the time, of course, but loads of tournament series are filled with three- and four-digit buy-ins, out of the price range of most players. Enter PokerStars, which has introduced the 50/50 Series, where every tournament costs $50.
Running from January 31 to February 7, the 50/50 Series consists of 50 events (ha!) and features $6.215 million in guaranteed prize pools. Two tournaments – the Main Event on the Series’ first day and the Progressive Knockout Sunday Million event on the first day – have guarantees of $1 million.
As one might expect, most of the tournaments are of the No-Limit Hold’em variety, but there are several flavors within that game type.
I would go on, since I need to fill space, but there really isn’t any more to say about the 50/50 Series. 50 tournaments, all with $50 buy-ins. I mean, sure, there are satellites starting at $1.10, but that’s always the case with these things.
Southern Europe and Italy MicroMillions
Also kicking off on January 31 is the MicroMillions for players in Southern Europe and Italy. These tournaments have even lower buy-ins than the 50/50 Series, so I guess I wasn’t quite accurate on the whole “poker rooms never have tournaments series for us low rollers” thing, but hey, it’s not like the MicroMillions comes along every month.
There are two different schedules: one for Southern Europe, which includes Spain, Portugal, and France, and one just for Italy. It has to do with the ring-fencing laws in each country. The four countries did come to an agreement years ago to combine player pools for online poker, but for whatever reason, Italy never got around to actually changing its laws and regulations to allow for it.
The Southern Europe version has 161 tournaments and €5 million in total guarantees. Buy-ins start at just €2. The €5 million guarantee is twice what last year’s MicroMillions had and is the largest ever for the Southern Europe MicroMillions.
Italy’s, you might guess, is a bit smaller, since it is just one country. The total guarantees add up to €2 million, with 95 events in all. That said, it is also the largest guarantee for a MicroMillions series in PokerStars Italy history.