Pokerstars Tournaments

Sunday Million

PokerStars was the first card room to offer a $1.5 Million Guaranteed no- limit hold'em tournament every week. Each Sunday at 4:30PM EST, the event gets better and better. First prize in this event is always more than $100,000 and usually more than $175,000. The buy-in to the event is $215. For as little as $3 or 400 FPPs, players can enter satellite almost any time of day and win an entry into the Sunday Million. The final table is always recorded. so players should be advised that if they do make the final table, their play will be available for all to see.

Sunday Warm-Up

The Sunday Warm-Up is a $750,000 Guarantee tournament which runs each Sunday at 1:00PM EST. Players fields usually top 4,000 players and the cost is $215. Players can find satellites to this weekly event every day for as little as $3 or 54 FPPs. This is an ideal tournament for PokerStars' European players.

Sunday 500

For the high-rollers, PokerStars offers the Sunday 500, with a $500,000 guarantee, which starts each Sunday at 5:30PM EST and has a direct buy-in of $530. Players should expect fields approaching 1,000 players, despite the cost. Satellites run daily for as little as $2.75 or cash in 920 FPPs [or more] for a crack at this high-roller weekly event.

Sunday Second Chance

Did you just get knocked out of the Sunday Warm-Up or the Sunday Million? No worries! PokerStars runs the Sunday Second Chance so you can redeem that bad beat you just took. This Sunday $250,000 Guarantee tournament conveniently starts at 6:30PM EST, giving you a chance to rebound and cash another big tournament. With a buy-in of $215, players can expect a lucrative final table and a field of 1200 or more. However, there are no direct satellites to this tournament. However, T$ can be used to buy-in directly, so in a round-about way, other satellites can help you satellite in.

Sunday $150,000 Rebuys

PokerStars offers a pair of $150,000 Guarantee Rebuy tournaments each Sunday night.

The $150,000 Guarantee Rebuy at 7:30PM EST is a $100+$9 tournament with unlimited rebuys and a single add-on after the tournament. Players start with 1500 chips and each $100 rebuy grants the player a further 1500 chips. At the end of the first hour, players are allowed to make one [1] $100 add-on which provides each player another 2000 chips. Prizepools tend to exceed $200,000 each Sunday.

The $150,000 Guarantee Rebuy at 8:00PM EST is a $200+$15 tournament with unlimited rebuys and a single add-on after the tournament. This tournament is identical in rebuys and the add-on as the $100 that precedes it above.

These six tournaments aren't the only big Sunday tournaments. Check out the PokerStars tournament menus for a full list of the ultra-lucrative opportunities available.

Although the big Sunday Guarantee Tournaments garner most of the attention each week, there are many other guarantees in a variety of poker formats, including Holdem, Omaha, 7-Stud and Razz. With buy-ins ranging from $1.10 to $1050, players can find many opportunites to play in a Guaranteed tournament which fits their bankroll. Whether it is a freezeout, deepstack, turbo or rebuy, PokerStars offers the biggest variety of poker tournaments online. Here is a short list of some of the best values offered, as well as a few of the big non-Sunday Guarantees. For a full rundown of tournaments, check out PokerStars' tournament menus.

The Super Tuesday

Every Tuesday evening at 7:55PM EST, PokerStars runs the Super Tuesday. With a buy-in of $1050. This $350,000 Guarantee is the highest buy-in consistently spread by PokerStars and players can see some of the best online pros battling for the top prizes. Players should note there are no direct satellites to this weekly event.

Wednesday Quarter Million

At 9:00 PM EST, the Wednesday Quarter Million takes over the timeslot of the Daily Hundred Grand. This $320 tournament does not run direct satellites, so players willing to play this tournament will either need to pay the entire $320 or start accumulating those T$!

Sunday Two Hundred Grand

This is the big daddy of low buy-in tournaments. Don't kid yourself, however. The field is huge, topping out every Sunday at 30,000 players. With the top prize upwards of $28,000 amd a buy-in of a mere $11, the draw to this tournament is evident. You'll need to survive the bad beats and another 29,000 players to have a shot at the real money, but those who do, make some very good money. There are some very cheap avenues into this tournament including 70 FPP and $0.11 [rebuy] satellites

Daily $40,000 Guarantee

One of the best values on the internet, this daily $40,000 Guarantee runs twice daily and starts at 2:15PM EST and 8:00PM EST. These tournaments usually see the prizepool higher than $50,000. This is a $3.30 rebuy, which players can satellite into for 70 FPPs. Since this is a low buy-in event [as long as you don't go berserk], the $40,000 guarantee is a huge daily draw. Care to make a play for $6-7,000?

Daily Eighty Grand

For the mid-range buy-ins, the Daily Eighty Grand is hard to pass up. With a $55 buy-in players will get a good shot at a $15,000 payday. Running each day at 3:00PM EST, this tournament has satellites as low as $1.10. The $1.10 satellite is a rebuy, but it is one of the most lucrative satellites available. Many players will play this satellite becuase the payoff is $55, which is a huge T$ opportunity for good players. For others, the chance to play a big tournament like this is well worth the micro buy-in.

PokerStars offers a number of Freerolls every week. Players must earn a ticket into one of the two weekend "Weekly Round 2" tournaments by winning a ticket through any number of daily freeroll satellites. Each tournament has a prize pool of $2,000, funded by PokerStars. Players earning a ticket can use that ticket to register for any upcoming Weekly Round 2 tournaments.

Weekly Round 2 – Every Saturday at 10:00AM EST and Sunday at 2:00PM EST

Structure:

• Saturday: No Limit Hold’em
• Sunday: Alternating each week in the following order: Limit Hold'em, No Limit Hold'em, Limit Omaha Hi-Lo, Seven Card Stud, No Limit Hold'em and Pot Limit Omaha

Weekly Round 2 Satellites [Players have a choice of tournament types to choose from]:

• Hubble's NL Holdem Freeroll
• Hawkings' FL Holdem Freeroll
• Cassini's Stud Freeroll

PokerStars offers tournaments each week for Frequent Player Points [FPPs]. These include:

Weekly FPP Limit Holdem Tournament

This tournament runs each Saturday at 4:00PM EST and has a buy-in of 50 FPPs. Prizepool is $1,000 and is paid out of PokerStars' special 20% award structure. Blinds increase every 15 minutes.

The Sunday Two Grand

This tournament is a great value for players who have a lot of FPPs, but are a bit short on their bankroll. For a mere 50 FPPs, players can vie for the weekly $2,000 prizepool each Sunday at 6:00PM EST. Also utilizing the 20% award structure and 15 minute blinds, register early as this has a maximum participation limit of 6,000 players.

$1 Million Turbo Takedown

With a 5,000 FPP pricetag for direct entry, this is the biggest FPP tournament to be run each month. It also pays out one in every three players with a top prize of $100,000. This behemoth runs on the last Sunday of every month at 2:30PM EST. The name is a bit misleading, however. Players start with 3,000 chips and the blinds change every 10 minutes. Don't want to part with 5,000 of your hard earned FPPs? Satellites run around the clock from as little as 8 FPPs. Now that's a bargain!

PokerStars offers players a Tournament Money system. With rare exceptions, if you win a seat to any event via one of PokerStars' satellite tournaments, you can choose to unregister and receive Tournament Money instead. T-Money can then be used to register for other PokerStars tournaments, including SnGs, special events, and satellites. In some cases, T-Money can be used by VIPs to buy into live events. Please check the information pages for Live Events for details.

Please note, however, that T-Money is not the same as real money, because you can’t use it in cash games or cash it out. You can check your T-Money balances at any time by clicking the Cashier window in the PokerStars lobby. You may have a balance of T-Money in more than one currency (for example, T$ and T€), each of which will be shown separately.

Players at PokerStars can buy and sell T-Money among themselves at whatever price the two parties agree upon. Initializing the transaction occurs through the following steps:

• Click on Requests  in the PokerStars software upper taskbar.
• In the Requests menu, highlight Trade Tournament Money. It''ll bring up 3 options:

1. Sell Tournament Money
2. Buy Tournament Money
3. Cancel Request

• Follow the instruction on the menu that pops up and you are on your way to completing the transaction.

A ‘Sit & Go’ [SNG] is a tournament which does not have a pre-assigned start time; it simply begins when all the seats are filled. There are many types of SnGs, ranging in size from heads-up to 360 players, in both satellite and cash tournament form. These tournaments can be found by clicking on the ‘Sit & Go’ tab in the main client lobby window. However there are couple of special types of SnG which need attention.

Double or Nothings [or DoNs]

Double or Nothing is a type of SnG tournament. In a Double or Nothing SnG tournament, half of the players who enter win double the buy-in. For example, in a $10 tournament with ten entrants, the top five finishers win $20, and the 6th-10th finishers will win nothing. The tournament ends when the prizes are reached, with all winners tying for first place. Double or Nothing tournaments are not eligible for any tournament leader board points. You can find Double or Nothing tournaments under ‘Sit & Go’ and ‘1-Table’ in the PokerStars lobby.

Steps

‘Steps’ are a special ‘tiered’ type of SnG tournament. By playing in Steps tournaments, you can turn a small investment into a large prize by working your way up from Step 1 to Step 6. Entry to the Steps system starts from just $7.50 or 500 Frequent Player Points (FPP), and you work your way up the ladder to win prizes worth thousands of dollars!

Even if you don’t advance to the next level in a particular Step tournament, you can win a chance to play again at the same level, or the one below. You can also buy in directly to any Step tournament at any level, or jump off the step ladder into certain regular tournaments using a Step 4 ticket.