Category: Pokerstars

2011 PokerStars WCOOP Main Event Kicks Off

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The PokerStars’ WCOOP is not only one of the largest online poker tournaments on PokerStars, but also in the online poker world in general.  The WCOOP Main Event recently saw an increased buy-in of $5,200 back in 2008, and has had over 2,000 players enter it consecutively since then.  While they were not expecting nearly as many players for this years event after Black Friday, the event still drew an impressive 1,627 entrants.  This number can be compared to the highest of all time, which came last year when 2,443 players entered.

When you check out the WCOOP event you’ll see multiple big name players on the entrant list, and you’ll also find that this event is so popular that some of the big named poker pros in the United States actually moved out of the country to compete in the PokerStars WCOOP.  The event featured an incredible prize pool of $8,135,000, and it will payout a total of 189 players.  Both first and second place for this even will earn over $1 million, with first place taking home $1.4 million, and second place getting just over $1 million.

You’ll find that online poker tournaments run a bit differently than live tournaments do, and that they will typically get into the cash within one day; just as the 2011 WCOOP Main Event did.  When the day ended, there were 176 players remaining out of the starting field.

When the day came to an end there were some big named players still in the hunt, with players like Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Johnny Lodden, Mathias de Muelder, Luke Schwartz, Niki Jedlicka, Jared Bleznick, David Bach, Steve Gross, Tom Marchese, Mmickey Petersen, Mike Leah, and many more.  As far as the top ten goes heading into the final day, we have “NUTZBOT” holding down the top spot with 649, 769 chips, and is followed by “dan82mur” with 600,527 chips.  There is one other player with over 500k in chips, as “zivziv” has 587,440 and is in third place.  The remainder of the top ten comes in between 400,000 and 500,000 chips.

The 2011 PokerStars WCOOP Main Event should be a very interesting finish, and will pay out its final table some very nice pay days.

Poker Pros to Battle for Expected £4 Million Prize Pool at PokerStars.com EPT London Poker Festival

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The PokerStars.com European Poker Tour (EPT), Europe’s richest and most popular poker tour is coming to London this month. In its’ eight year history, almost 40,000 players have hit the felt, and the EPT has paid out over £200 million in prize money. In August this year, the EPT Barcelona event broke all previous records and became the largest live poker event ever held in Spain with 811 players taking their seats to play for share of the £3.5 million prize pool. The EPT London is set to continue this record-breaking trend with the prize pool expected to exceed £4 million.

Celebrities such as ex-tennis star and professional poker player Boris Becker, model, presenter and previous EPT title winner Liv Boeree, and well known broadcaster, journalist and 2006 EPT London winner Vicky Coren will sit down alongside the biggest names in poker, all eager to pick up the title and first prize, which is set to hit the £1 million mark for the first time ever.

The 7-day long poker festival presented by PokerStars.com, will offer players some of the best quality tournament poker action in the world. There are 31 events on offer, including the European 8-Game Championship, the No Limit Hold’em Women’s Event, the two-day long £20,000 buy-in High Roller tournament and of course, the coveted EPT London Main Event.

This year also marks the first ever EPT London Quest, an exciting competition run through Twitter where one lucky player will win a seat in an EPT London side-event tournament. Poker fans will need to follow the account @PokerStars and hashtag #EPTQuest from 8.30am on Sunday 2nd October for clues for a password and details of a secret central London location. Once they crack the code and turn up to the location, they will need to correctly say the password then play and win a 5-minute heads-up tournament. Win the tournament, and they will receive one of nine golden chips to enter a live game against the other eight winners. The champion of this table will take their seat at the “No Limit Turbo – Win the Button!” tournament at 8.00pm the same day.

Last year the record-breaking PokerStars.com European Poker Tour Main Event was the biggest poker tournament ever held in the UK, attracting 848 players. It made David Vamplew the highest-earning Scottish poker player ever with an amazing £900,000 first prize.

The PokerStars.com EPT runs from September 30 – October 6, 2011 at the Hilton London Metropole Hotel in central London.

PokerStars to Create Their Own Rush Poker?

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One of the most popular additions to the online poker site Full Tilt Poker, was their creation of Rush Poker.  Rush Poker was essentially a fast paced Texas Hold’em or Omaha game, where as soon as you folded your hand; you would be dealt a new hand at a new table.  The idea behind this was that players could pick the spots that they wanted to play, and also be able to play many more hands per hour than they could at a normal table.  This game took off in the poker world, but since Full Tilt had its license suspended recently, players have had nowhere to play this at.

It seems that PokerStars could be stepping up though, and potentially creating their own form of Rush Poker.  A PokerStars rep posted on the Two Plus Two forums yesterday, stating that “PokerStars is developing a fast moving ring games product.  We expect it to be available for public beta testing in a few months.”  There has been no additional info about this topic yet, but one could assume that this new fast paced game on PokerStars could be similar to the game that was one of the many reasons why their rival, Full Tilt, was so popular.

While this game was very popular, some players felt that Rush Poker took traffic away from the standard tables as well.  Rush Poker was incredibly popular with the recreational players, which was a downfall for poker pros and players who look to make a living from playing online poker at the standard ring games.  Rush Poker also gave players the chance to earn more loyalty points, due to the fact that they were playing more hands and generating more rake overall.

It will be interesting to see how this pans out for PokerStars, but this definitely seems to be considered a “smart” move for the online poker juggernaut.  PokerStars currently has the most traffic out of any online poker site, and also offers some of the largest guaranteed tournaments and most ring games as well.  The addition of this popular type of poker may be one of the only things that PokerStars is missing from their arsenal currently.

PokerStars Turns On WCOOP Radio

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The 2011 Poker Stars World Championship of Online Poker is on now, running through the end of September and consisting of 62 events including a $5 million guaranteed main event. And as of September 7th, you can hear all the action and behind-the-scenes activity through Poker Stars radio’s WCOOP Show. With hosts Jon Stapledon, of FOX TV’s PokerStars Big Game fame, and PokerStars UKIPT host Nick Wealthall, the WCOOP Show on PokerStars radio promises to include special guest appearances and interviews and updates on the WCOOP events taking place. The WCOOP radio show will also feature an assortment of call-in opportunities with $50,000 in prizes to be given away.

Among these call-in opportunities are the Daily Tourney, a $1 Hyper Turbo online tournament. After each of these events are over, PokerStars radio will get in touch with the winner by phone. If the winner answers with that day’s Phrase That Pays, they win a $215 tournament ticket into their choice of a Steps 4 satellite, a WCOOP event of equivalent value or a Sunday Majors event of equivalent value.

Another promotion for radio listeners of the WCOOP Show is the Giveaway Freebuy. This promo also involves a special password spoken in each program to find players to seed into a freeroll tournament with a $0.10 rebuy from which the top 3 winners get 1,000 FPPs each and the top winner gets a bonus opportunity in a future show to claim a second prize of a Step 2 ticket or risk it for a shot at a Step 3 ticket. These are just a couple of examples of the opportunities to win money at this year’s WCOOP just by listening to the radio.

August 2011 is PokerStars VIP Club Mega Month

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This August, 2011, all you have to do is earn 75 VIP Points at Poker Stars and you will be given Silver Star player status for the rest of this month and all of next, through to the end of September. Ordinarily you have to earn 750 VPPS to achieve that status.

What does SilverStar status bring you? You get 1.5 FPPS for each VPP instead of just 1 for 1, as BronzeStar players do. You also get a better monthly rewards rate: 16-18 percent starting the first month at $22 and previous months 19-21 percent starting at $26 instead of 9-10 percent for up to $12 the first month and 15-17 percent for up to $21 the second month.

And what if you’re already a SilverStars VIP player? Then you can gain GoldStars status for earning only 300 VPPS instead of the normal 3,000. GoldStar VIP players the same–earn 750 VPPs for PlatinumStar status instead of the usual 7,500 VPPS. Now, once September ends, to retain the boosted status you will have to earn the normal requisite number of VPPS or be downgraded to your previous status. But for two months at least, you can get a feel for the view “up there” and perhaps an added incentive to try and climb your way back to those heights.

Each status level brings you a better FPP for VPP rate and higher monthly rewards potential.

During VIP Club Mega Month, Poker Stars is also holding a VIP Store Sale.

Poker Stars Doubles Battle of the Planet Prize Pools All Week…And Then Some

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This week at Poker Stars is Battle of the Planets Week, taking place from Sunday, August 7 through Saturday, August 13, 2011. During this time, a leader board contest that usually promises players $3,000,000 per year in cash winnings ups the ante to $10,000,000 for just this one week only.

In the Battle of the Planet, Poker Stars players compete in multiplayer sit and go tournaments with varying buy-ins and equally varying prize pools. Each sit and go stakes range is named for a certain planet in our solar system. Each planet has a leaderboard Poker Stars tracks to find the most successful players in each group. Prizes are awarded weekly in two categories for each planetary group, each with its own leader board: one for casual players called the Low-Orbit leader board and one for frequent players called the High-Oribt leader boards.

During this Battle of the Planets week, all of the weekly prize pools have been doubled, ranging from $1,500 for each orbit in the lowest stakes, or Mercury Sit and Gos, to $10,000 for each orbit in the highest stakes range, or Jupiter Sit and Gos.

All players finishing in the top 10 in any of the 16 weekly leaderboards wins a seat in a monthly triple shootout worth $50,000.

You must play in at least 20 BOTP Sit and Gos in any given group in order to be eligible for a share of that group’s prize pool. Low orbit players can compete in up to 5 blocks of 20 tournaments, or 100 BOTP Sit and Gos before being bumped to high orbit, in which players must compete in at least 100 BOTP Sit and Gos to qualify.

Poker Stars Releases 2011 WCOOP Schedule

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It’s time once again for another World Championship of Online Poker, courtesy of the slightly smaller but still world’s largest poker site: Poker Stars.

The 2011 World Championship of Online Poker (or WCOOP, for short) consists of 62 tournaments ranging from No Limit Hold’em to Fixed Limit Badugi and everything in between. Over half-a-dozen events have prize pools topping $1 million, several reaching $1.5 million. The action takes place from September 4 – 25 with most days seeing at least two, sometimes three or four, events. It all leads up to the main event, of course, taking place September 25 for a direct buy-in of $5,200 and a guaranteed prize pool of at least $5 million with a guaranteed 20% (that’s $1 million minimum) going to first place.

Buy-ins for WCOOP 2011 start at $109 and climb to $10,300 for the several high-roller events. But the site is already holding satellite tournaments awarding seats in the series’ various events for much lower cost, starting at only 100 FPPs (Frequent Player Points) or $1. There are also STEPS Sit and Go satellites into the 2011 WCOOP as well.

There will also be a leaderboard running to determine the WCOOP Player of the Series, who will win a massive prize package that includes a Champions Trophy, an EPT (European Poker Tour) Season 8 Grand Final prize package, a 2012 SCOOP (Spring Championship of Online Poker) main event entry, a prize package into the 2012 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure and a special edition poker chip set.

Meet Chris Moneymaker at Poker Stars Eureka Poker Tour

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Winners of satellite tournaments into the latest Eureka Poker Tour, Eureka Zagreb, will not only get a free seat in the live event worth €1,400. They will also get to meet 2003 World Series of Poker Main Event winner, and the man who paved the way for online poker amateurs to take on professional live championship poker, Chris Moneymaker. What’s more, one of these lucky satellite winners will also get the chance to play against Chris Moneymaker heads-up in a €1,000 buy-in event.

Poker Stars is giving away four Eureka Zagreb prize packages. Freeroll and cash entry satellites into the Weekly Final satellites at which the prize packages will be awarded are running around the clock at the site. In addition, all players to reach one of the weekly finals will also be invited back to play in the Grand Final, at which the heads-up seat opposited Chris Moneymaker will also be awarded. In addition the Grand Final has a €2,000 guaranteed cash prize pool, which the regular weekly finals also have an added €1,000 cash prize pool.

Players can enter one of the Weekly Finals in one of several ways. The freeroll path runs Mondays through Saturdays, July 25 through August 12 with the top 50 winning seats in the Freezeout Qualifier. The Freezeout Qualifier has a €1.10 direct buy-in and runs Mondays through Sundays, July 25 through August 13, awarding the top 9 finishers seats in the weekly final. Alternatively, there’s a €3.30 Rebuy Qualifier running the same days, with the same guaranteed awards.

Eureka Zagreb weekly finals take place Sundays, July 31 and August 7 and 14, while the grand final takes place Tuesday, August 16.

Poker Stars Sunday Majors Line-up Gets Biggers

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Poker Stars just made Sunday an even better day to play online poker with the newest addition to its selection of big money tournaments known collectively as the Sunday Majors, that being the $50,000 guaranteed Sunday Cubed.

The Poker Stars Sunday Cubed launched on July 31 and now runs each and every Sunday at 5:00 ET, a time intended to attract players from New Zealand, Australia, Asia and countries East of Central Europe.

The Sunday Cubed has a buy-in of $55 + $1 and is a rebuy/add-on event, permitting one of each per player per event.

That brings to nine the full total number of tournaments in the Sunday Majors held each Sunday at Poker Stars, the others being:
• The Sunday Kickoff worth $75,000 guaranteed
• The Sunday Rebuy worth $200,000 guaranteed
• The Sunday Storm worth $200,000 guaranteed
• The Sunday 500 worth $250,000 guaranteed
• The Sundy Second Chance worth $125,000 guaranteed
• The Sunday 6-Max worth $60,000 guaranteed
• The Sunday Supersonic worth $40,000 guaranteed
• The Sunday Million worth $1 million guaranteed and a first place prize of at least $150,000

There are also big $215 buy-in tournaments every Sunday at Poker Stars in Omaha, Stud and Draw poker.

As with all Sunday Majors, Poker Stars is holding qualifier tournaments throughout each week leading up to the big event, giving players a way to enter the Sunday Cubed tournament without paying the buy-in. You’ll find the Sunday Cubed schedule and registration button under Regular in the PokerStars Tourney lobby.

Daniel Negreanu Invites High Stakes Poker Players to Daniel’s Room at Poker Stars

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Daniel Negreanu hosts his very own poker room at Poker Stars for high rollers only. If that sounds like you, then you’re invited. All you need is the proper bankroll and you can play cash poker for the kind of money most players can only hope to encounter in tournament play. Daniel’s Room features cash tables at different stakes – all of them high.

While more games at different stakes may be offered in the future, currently Daniel’s Room hosts No Limit Hold’em only, currently at three different stakes ranges: $20/$40 with a $10 ante, $50/$100 with a $25 ante and $100/$200 with a $50 ante. All tables are 6-handed, with a minimum 100 BB buy-in and a maximum 250 BB buy-in.

Players interested in high stakes poker but currently lacking the bankroll to sit in and play can still observe the action in Daniel’s Room as these tables are open to railbirds. Watch how the high rollers play without having to risk taking a hit for it.

Find Daniel’s Room tables by browsing to the High stakes section of the Hold’em No Limit/Pot Limit tab and looking for the red DR symbol. You can also use the Hold’em Ring Game Filter option labeled “Show Daniel’s Room Only”.

Daniel Negreanu, nicknamed “Kid Poker”, is considered one of the best No Limit Hold’em poker players alive. Member of Team Poker Stars and host of the recurring poker TV show “PokerStars Poker Million”, the Canadian poker star has won first, second or third place in no less than a dozen and a half major league poker tournaments, including World Poker Tour and World Series of Poker events.