PokerStars has never been shy about aggressively expanding, both in terms of game offerings and tournament guarantees. They’ve been the “build it and players will come” role model for online sites. The $200+15 Sunday major has gone from $500k guaranteed to $750k to $1 Million to $1.5 Million over the last three years – they have almost never failed to make the guarantee. The same claim can be made for the nightly $10, $27.50, $3r, $5r, $10r, and most of their other regular tournaments.And now, PokerStars has entered uncharted waters with the Spring Championship Of Online Poker, offering $30 million in tournament guarantees. SCOOP – a great acronym. Looking over the schedule, there are some potentially fascinating financial stories which could play out over the course of those 12 days in April.
To start, some of the preliminary non-Hold’em SCOOP events rival the largest tournaments in poker history. Traditionally, the largest Razz, Triple Draw Lowball, Pot Limit Omaha 8/b or 5-Card Draw tournaments have been $1,500 or $2,000 events at the World Series of Poker (in years when those events have been offered). The SCOOP may not reach the last couple of years in terms of bracelet frenzy..but it’s not for a lack of trying. Check the numbers.
The SCOOP buy-ins dwarf those offered in previous FTOPS or WCOOP fields. The first few events will be OK, as will the Main Event at the end. The excitement of the start, and the huge prize pools at the end, will draw players. The non-Hold’em events in the middle could struggle to come close to what Stars is putting up, 12 tournaments with an average guarantee of almost $400,000.
Normally, big buy-in events generate large fields by offering satellites and super-satellites. Players can take a couple of shots at getting into the tournament for cheap…if they make it, great; if not, they go ahead and pony up the full buy-in for the event. The SCOOP satellite structure could be significantly different because it offers three tiers of tournaments: Low, Medium, and High. Each level is 10x higher than the previous…probably not coincidentally, this is the same general buy-in increase from super-satellites to satellites to big buy-in events online. So if a Medium buy-in player takes a shot or two at the High tournament via satellite, and doesn’t win his seat, he’s got an easy-to-swallow second option. He can play the Medium buy-in tournament.
Some Low buy-in players might stay where they are, rather than taking shots to move up to the High tournament. The Low stakes players are the people who get into the Sunday Million via two tiers of satellite structure, generating huge fields and massive prize pools. Those players are casual, often not very good, and vital to the profitability of a tournament. The three levels of the SCOOP could mean fewer fish in the High pond – the sharks could end up eating each other even more so than usual.
Speaking of those poor sharks, the 12 days of the SCOOP will easily be the most expensive in online history, on equal status with live series like the WSOP or Bellagio Cup. If a pro is going to play every event (MUCH easier to do here than in the WSOP, obviously), they will pay out a minimum of $100,000 (it’s actually $99,380, if you wish to quibble)…and this figure only includes the minimum numbers of rebuys and add-ons where applicable. Take out the $25k Heads-Up, and you’re still talking about a staggering amount of money.
Professional players budget and plan out an expenditure schedule around the WSOP every year. You know the Series’ schedule months ahead of time, and save up (or get backing) accordingly. PokerStars has announced the SCOOP with only six weeks notice for people to try to get their affairs in order. I expect many online MTT pros to play many of the Medium buy-ins instead of the High, simply because the money didn’t work out. Run bad the first week, and there might not be a second week.
For many amateurs, there won’t be a SCOOP at all. PokerStars is well aware of what the other big online series go through in terms of tournament length. Previous WCOOP and FTOPS events, offering super stacks and slow structure for the money, have taken 16 hours or more to complete. The SCOOP is avoiding the insane hours of the FTOPS by starting each day’s events at 2:30 and 4:30 PM Eastern Standard Time. This means European players aren’t trying to start a very long event in the wee hours of the morning. Good for them; bad for the thousands of North American players with jobs and school and families during the day, and for whom poker is strictly a night-time activity. I know it’s impossible for Stars to please everyone; it’s always 2 AM somewhere, but this probably means I won’t be able to play anything except for the weekends.
But for those who have the dollars and the time, the SCOOP is a great opportunity. I can’t think of a non-holiday flagship tournament which failed to reach its guarantee on PokerStars. And here we are, given the opportunity to potentially see a dozen or more MTTs in a row with an overlay. Whether or not I can play, I’m excited to see what happens.
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