888 poker has upped the guarantee to https://cdn.pocketfives.com/p5wp/2017/11/594950-888-xl-2017.jpg,000,000 for the fifth edition of the online series

888poker is kicking off 2017 in grand fashion with the seventh edition of its popular Super XL Series, this time bumping up its guaranteed prize pool to $5 million, $1 million more than the previous edition of the event.

The action takes place from January 19-31 and features 63 events, including Main, Mini and Turbo versions of each tournament. The Series culminates with the $1,050 buy-in, $1.5 million guaranteed Main Event on Sunday, January 29.

The festivities begin with the $109 buy-in, $100,000 guaranteed Opening Event, which in the past has proven to be one of the most popular. The Series VI iteration of the tournament garnered 1,603 players who made a total of 733 rebuys. The resulting prize pool beat all expectations, surpassing its $300,000 guarantee by $51,000. Costa Rica’s Michael ‘AcesJoker88’ Acevedo claimed victory in that tournament, taking home $59,283.

On Saturday, January 21 players will have another chance to battle for a $100,000 prize pool in the $88 buy-in Crazy 8 event. The tournament, which mirrors the starting stack and structure of the World Series of Poker’s $888 Crazy 8s, will also be offered in a Turbo and Mini format with buy-ins of $55 and $8.80 respectively.

Sunday’s schedule is packed with big tournaments, including the $215 buy-in, $200,000 Mega Deep, the $160 buy-in, $300,000 Tune Up and the $600 buy-in, $250,000 Whale tournament.

The Series’ $2,100 buy-in High Roller event plays out on Tuesday, January 24 and boasts $350,000 in guaranteed cash. The tournament is expected to be even bigger than its Series VI predecessor, which attracted 332 entrants and created a $664,000 prize pool. Germany’s ‘ICrushu556’ took the top spot in that event, banking $107,606 after agreeing to a three-way chop.

“I’m excited that 888poker is pumping up the guarantees and putting more money into online poker,” said 888 Ambassador Chris Moorman in a release. “It’s awesome to have multiple series throughout the year that gets everyone on the virtual felts for a couple of weeks. The Super XL Series is at the top of my list of must-play poker events. Now I just need to win one!”

888, which has padded the January Super XL prize pool with $1 million more than it offered in Series VI in September, has good reason to believe that January’s festival will be its biggest yet. Just four years ago, the site ran its inaugural Super XL Series, guaranteeing just $500,000 in the $600 buy-in Main Event. Compare that with Series VI, which surpassed its $1.5 million Main Event guarantee with a record $1.74 million prize pool, generated by 1,291 players. In that tournament, Canada’s ‘GetLuckyAK’ pocketed the $261,214 first-place prize after chopping with Sami ‘d144n1’ Kelopuro and 888poker Ambassador Dominik ‘888Dominik’ Nitsche.

What’s more, all guarantees in the January 2016 Super XL Series IV were covered by an average of 210%. Finland’s ‘jnevanli’ claimed victory in the Main Event that go round, defeating UK’s ‘carmen.195’. At the time, the Main Event boasted a $1 million guarantee, with $182,635 set aside for the winner.

“I think it’s great to see how small we started compared to what we have become now,” said Nitsche. “It truly has gotten better each and every single time, and I know because I played pretty much all of them. For me, as an Ambassador, I like that I am able to offer input directly to our Poker Manager who always listens to feedback. I’m very confident the next XL Series will even be better than the last one.”

Series VII participants will also have the chance to place on the newly-introduced Super XL leaderboard, which awards the top 18 finishers a seat in the Super XL Champion of Champions event on Tuesday, January 31. The winner of that contest will receive a full package to the 2017 World Series of Poker Main Event, while all others will go home with a consolation prize.

For those looking to get in on the action for less, 888poker is currently running daily satellites. Additionally, players who make a deposit of $10 or more using the code SUPER10 will receive three tickets to the daily Super XL Qualifiers.