Moneymaker. Raymer. Hachem. Each a WSOP Main Event champion. Each a multi-millionaire. Each got there by playing on Poker Stars. Though Jamie Gold's WSOP victory may have broken the "Stars Streak" of consecutive Main Event winners, Poker Stars qualifiers made up 18% of this year's record-breaking field of 8,773 players, taking an astounding $6 million in prize money off the final table alone. Some of today's most successful emerging tournament pros found their first major poker successes in Stars tournaments including Cliff "JohnnyBax" Josephy, Eric "Rizen" Lynch, and Jason "strassa2" Strasser.
Poker Stars is unparalleled in terms of tournament structure and selection. Hop on at any hour of the day and you might find a $55 NLHE tournament, a $3 Omaha hilo freezeout and a $13 turbo double shootout satellite to their juicy Sunday Million tournament all starting within minutes of each other. Aside from traditional freezeouts, Stars offers double and triple shootouts, heads-up tournaments, turbo tournaments (5 minute levels), shorthanded tournaments and their wildly popular rebuy events, where you'll find some of online poker's craziest action. Poker Stars also spreads Deep Stack tournaments several times a day in no-limit, pot limit, and limit hold'em as well as limit Omaha hi-lo and pot-limit Omaha. With 5000 chips to start and 30-minute blind levels, these tourneys can take up to 12 hours to finish, but give players ample room to maneuver and a lot of bang for the buck. Poker Stars' tournaments have an excellent structure and in many ways more accurately reflect the pace and tempo of live brick and mortar tournaments than any other online room.
The Poker Stars Sunday Million is currently the premiere weekly online NLHE event. Regularly boasting fields of 5500+ which more than exceed the $1 million in guaranteed prize money, every serious online player out there eventually takes a swing (or a hundred) at the Sunday Million. More often than not, first prize is over $150,000 and second approaches six figures. Satellites run around the clock at virtually every buyin level and structure one can imagine. SNG specialist? Get in via a single-table satellite or try a double shootout. Prefer super satellites (like me)? Get thee to the juicy $11 turbo rebuys. Totally broke and looking for that big score? Satellite in on your Frequent Player Points (FPPs) and rebuild that bankroll fast. Though the Sunday Million is typically a $215 buyin event, Stars kicks it up to $530 on the last Sunday of the month and $1,050 on the last Sunday of the quarter.
This month, Poker Stars is running their fifth annual World Championship of Online Poker, or "WCOOP." With 18 events and $10 million in guaranteed prize money, WCOOP covers every game from stud to limit hold'em to pot-limit Omaha 8, culminating in a $2,600 buyin NLHE main event.
Kicking off with $215 razz on September 16, WCOOP runs through October 1st. Perhaps its most star-studded field will be in the $5,200 H.O.R.S.E. tournament, hosted by one of Team Poker Stars' newest additions, Barry Greenstein. Poker Stars also sponsors the European Poker Tour and offers online satellites to every EPT event on the calendar. Currently, seats to EPT London, Baden, Dublin, and Barcelona are up for grabs for as little as a $5 investment. FPP satellites are also running every day.
Of course, Poker Stars isn't just for tournament players. The cash game action is excellent across the board. Limit, no-limit, and pot-limit hold'em , Omaha, and Omaha hi-lo as well as limit stud and stud hi-lo are spread at limits ranging from $0.02-$0.04 to $200-$400. With the smallest of micro-limits available, Stars is a great place to start learning new poker games without risking a lot of cash. They've also just added razz, H.O.R.S.E. and H.O.S.E. ring games starting at the $1-$2 through $10-$20 levels. Though mixed game tournaments are becoming more popular across the online poker world, Poker Stars is currently the only site spreading mixed cash games. Poker Stars boasts a superb VIP program to reward their frequent players. Based on the amount of points a player earns in a month, they can achieve Silver, Gold, Platinum, or even Supernova status, opening the door to special VIP weekly freerolls, exclusive satellite tournaments to major land-based events, and the opportunity to use their points to purchase items in the VIP Frequent Player Points store. FPPs can be cashed in for anything from iPod nanos to flat-screen monitors, to WSOP buyins.
Tournament and cash game players alike will find themselves right at home on Poker Stars. Just keep your eyes peeled- there might be a bracelet winner at your table.
