PSPC Online, which will run from January 13th to 30th, is PokerStars’ first multi-state online poker tournament series for players in Michigan and New Jersey. [Image: PokerStars.com]
One for Michigan/New Jersey, one for Pennsylvania
This week, PokerStars’ first multi-state online poker tournament series will kick off for players in Michigan and New Jersey. From January 13th to 30th, “PSPC Online” will consist of 85 events and feature $2.5 million in guaranteed prizes.
“Draws inspiration” from the promoted event
Despite the name, the series doesn’t appear to be giving away any tickets to the PokerStars Players Championship that will be held at the end of the month in the Bahamas, but rather “getting inspired” by the dazzling event. The cost of entry to the PSPC Online Main Event is $250 – one-hundredth of the price of a live PSPC pass – with a $300,000 guarantee. There is also a $50 Mini Main Event and $2,500 High Roller Main Event; The three “Main Events” combine for $500,000 in guaranteed prize pools.
PokerStars players in Pennsylvania own their own PSPC online, as their state still has to share player cash with Michigan and New Jersey. The Keystone State Series contains 72 events and $1.5 million in total guarantees.
Successful debut of the US PokerStars Network
PokerStars assembled player pools at its Michigan and New Jersey locations on January 1, 2023, making it the second interstate online poker network in the United States. The network marked this important occasion in American poker history by hosting two special multi-state tournaments: a $100 buy-in event with a guaranteed prize pool of $100,000 and a guaranteed $10 tournament of $50,000.
The $100 tournament has more than doubled, drawing 2,189 entries
Both tournaments have attracted enough players to overcome the guarantees. The $10 event, which just started, attracted 6,378 entries generating a prize pool of $58,039.80, while the $100 tournament more than doubled its guarantee, drawing 2,189 entries to build a prize pool of $200,950.20.
said Severin Rasset, Managing Director of PokerStars US in the PSPC announcement.
“Now we’re excited to bring our first multi-state online series to players and our largest online series to date in the US… There’s so much more to come for the MI and NJ community and we look forward to the excitement and rewards for our players in 2023 and beyond”
The online poker market in the United States is still small
PokerStars has been able to create an interstate online poker network thanks to the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement (MSIGA). While countries are free to legalize online poker, they must still form agreements to allow cross-border play. MSIGA was started by Delaware and Nevada and was later joined by NJ, but that’s all there has been for years. It wasn’t until May 2022 that Michigan finally hopped on board.
WSOP/888 has poker rooms in Delaware, Nevada and New Jersey. Nevada and New Jersey both own WSOP.com, which allows them to integrate into the online bracelet events of the World Series of Poker, while the three Delaware-based Racino-based sites only use the 888 platform and are not WSOP-branded, meaning they still share cash with other states. Not just for WSOP events.
WSOP.com and BetMGM have online poker rooms in Michigan as well, but they have yet to be linked to their counterparts in other MSIGA member states. BetMGM is said to be upgrading its software in anticipation of future liquidity sharing. Michigan players had their bracelet events online at the WSOP in 2022, so it would be surprising if WSOP.com couldn’t merge its pool of players with others by the time the WSOP rolls around in 2023, a year later. Full of Michigan. Join MSIGA.
