We all know the joke about “Christmas creep” by now: retailers erect their Christmas displays and start their holiday sales earlier and earlier every year. Well, it looks like PokerStars is experiencing some Christmas creep this year, as well, as it has launched its Christmas Festival already, a good two weeks before Thanksgiving (or should I say mid-November, as Americans, the people who celebrate Thanksgiving at the end of November, can’t play on PokerStars). The festival started Monday and will run through December 27th.
The first part of the Christmas festival will go for the rest of November. In the Daily Double Jackpot, PokerStars will host 84 Daily Double tournaments across the next 14 days: two $1.10 tourneys at 1:00pm ET, two $11 tourneys at 2:00pm, and two $55 tourneys at 3:00pm. They will have $5,000, $50,000, and $75,000 guarantees on Monday through Saturday, respectively, with $10,000, $125,000, and $250,000 guarantees on Sunday.
The big deal with these tournaments is if somebody wins both Daily Doubles of the same buy-in on the same day, they will win an additional $1 million. Certainly not easy, but not a bad reward or the accomplishment, either. Additionally, PokerStars will award the players at one random table on Monday through Saturday with two $55 tournament tickets. The players at the lucky table on Sunday will receive a $215 ticket for the $5 million Sunday Million on December 27th.
Starting in December, the promo will shift to the Christmas Calendar, a poker version of fun calendar with chocolate hiding behind each door. Instead of chocolate, though, PokerStars is providing a different offer every day. Found in the “Challenges” window in the PokerStars software client, a new challenge is available every day of December through Christmas starting at midnight ET. Promotions for the Christmas calendar could be things like PCA Giveaways, Freerolls, Milestone Hands, Golden Sit & Go’s, various Challenges, Mega Bonuses, and more.
And then, on December 27th, is the previously mentioned special $5 million guaranteed Sunday Million with a first prize of at least $500,000. The buy-in is $215, but as with essentially every PokerStars multi-table tournament, there are plenty of satellites to allow players to get in for less money.
So there you go. It is not the most exciting promotion in the world, but if you like double-tabling tournaments, it might be worth a shot to go for the Daily Double. If you don’t normally play tournaments, there’s no real reason to jump into them, as the odds of winning any sort of extra prize are low and the prizes aren’t very valuable at that (save the million dollars, but face it – you’re probably not going to win one tourney, let alone two at the same time). The Christmas Calendar might turn out to be fun and there’s no extra effort required.