PokerStars Weekly MTT Schedule Follows Partypoker’s Lead In New Jersey

A $10,000 daily tournament and $50,000 Sunday event follow the partypoker/Borgata formula closely.

PokerStars NJ has published its online poker tournament weekly schedule, and the events that top the billing match—but do not surpass—guaranteed tournaments currently scheduled in New Jersey.

Every day, PokerStars’ “Nightly Stars” tournament promises a $10,000 guarantee for a $100 buy-in. There are also four “Daily Bigs,” with buyins ranging from $5 to $20 and guaranteed prize pools between $500 to $1000.

Close match to Party / Borgata

This schedule matches closely with the schedule at partypoker New Jersey, where two skins—partypoker and Borgata—currently offer the best MTT weekly schedule.

Their headline daily event is also a $100 tournament with a $10k guarantee, alongside over half a dozen smaller tournaments with guarantees between $500 to $1000. In fact, the standout area the two differ is PokerStars has chosen not to match party’s $50 $5k guarantee daily.

The story is much the same on Sunday, traditionally the biggest day of the week for tournaments. PokerStars has chosen to match the partypoker $50,000 Guaranteed “Main Event” with a tournament of the same buy-in ($200) and prize pool, starting just one hour later.

Testing new waters

There are two areas where PokerStars is testing new waters:

• On Sunday, the site is running a High Roller, a $500 buy-in tournament which will need to attract 30 players to reach the guarantee.
• PokerStars’ schedule is also more diverse. Whereas party has a single daily small 6-max PLO tournament, PokerStars will be trying to fill a PLO, O8, and a 7 Card Stud tournament every day, as well as Knockouts and Turbos.

The third player in the market, the combined 888/WSOP network and cash game market leader, also has similar top-line events on the weekly MTT schedule. Its $200 Sunday tournament recently got a jolt to its guarantee—from $10,000 up to $30,000—and the site also offers both $5k and $10k tournaments daily.

PokerStars is currently in a soft-launch period in the New Jersey online gaming market. Having successfully completed two eight hour windows, the site will re-open on Friday at 8am.

If things proceed smoothly, the site will stay open for two 24 hour periods on Saturday and Sunday, then officially open on Monday for all players.

This article is syndicated by the leading poker industry news authority, Poker Industry PRO.