$25m in guaranteed prize pools
PokerStars, the world’s largest online poker room, is set to launch another online tournament series. The newly announced Summer Series begins Sunday, June 7 and will run through Sunday, June 21.
There are 151 tournaments in the Summer Series, boasting a combined $25m in guaranteed prize pools. The earliest events start between 10:15am and 10:30am ET each day, with the latest tournaments getting underway between 5pm and 6:30pm ET. There will be at least eight tournaments daily.
most players will be able to find something that works for their bankroll
As PokerStars points out, this isn’t a tournament series geared towards micro-stakes players. However, buy-ins do go as low as $11, so most players will be able to find something that works for their bankroll. As usual, there are opportunities to qualify at cheaper price points via daily satellites.
Four guarantees of at least $1m
Of the $25m in guarantees, $6m comes from the four tournaments in the PokerStars Summer Series that have seven-figure assured prize pools. While this is not a multi-tiered buy-in series, there are two Main Events. One has a $55 buy-in with a $1m guarantee and the other has a $530 buy-in with a $2m guarantee.
The other two seven-figure guarantees are found in the Special Edition Sunday Millions events. One will be on the first day of the Summer Series, the other on June 14. Both have $109 buy-ins and $1.5m guaranteed prize pools.
Little time to relax after SCOOP
The Summer Series comes right on the heels of the PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP), which finishes up today. One of the largest events on the internet poker calendar, SCOOP was originally supposed to end two weeks ago. However, because of the turnout, PokerStars extended the series through May.
PokerStars added 132 tournaments and other $50m in guaranteed prize pools
With the extension, PokerStars added 132 tournaments and other $50m in guaranteed prize pools. As poker players have been at home during the coronavirus pandemic, online poker traffic has skyrocketed, allowing poker rooms to be able to support such massive tournament series.
PokerStars’ expansion of SCOOP may have also been a response to the WSOP Super Circuit Online Series on GGPoker. When the original SCOOP schedule was announced, it featured $85m in guarantees, the most in online poker history. The WSOP Super Circuit quickly beat that, constructing a series with 595 events and $100m in guarantees.
With the additional events, SCOOP ended up with $135m in guarantees. The total generated prize pools have easily beaten that, approaching $176m before action starts on the final day.
