At $109, PokerStars Sunday Million Losing Players and Prestige
In January, PokerStars made a much-heralded change to their flagship Sunday tournament, the Sunday Million. After years of being a staple on the Sunday Majors schedule at a $215 buy-in, the online poker giant announced they were moving to a $109 price point moving forward. The move was meant to give more players the chance to play in an event that most online poker players held in high regard.
“We want to open online poker’s flagship event to more and more players. The lower buy-in will do that, while ensuring the “Milly” remains the Sunday Major every player wants to win,” PokerStars said in a statement at the time.
The change might be backfiring in more ways than one. Since the $109 buy-in became standard on January 27, the field has dropped from 15,550 to 8,984 this past Sunday, when it overlayed by $101,600 ($20,744 if you include the fees) and some of the best online poker players believe the event is losing its luster.
“I think they changed something that we got used to and really loved. When I was starting to play, I looked at the $215 Sunday Million and I think that happened to pretty much everyone that was starting to play online poker,” said Alexandre ‘Cavalito’ Mantovani, who finished third in the Sunday Million on February 25, 2018. “You just looked at the biggest tournament and the Sunday Million was special. They changed it to $109. They tried a PKO once. It’s kind of all over the place and it’s actually not a surprise to see it overlaying.”
Over the course of the first eight weeks of the $109 buy-in Sunday Million, the field size dropped each week.
| Date | Entrants | % Decrease |
|---|---|---|
| January 27 | 15,550 | — |
| February 3 | 13,228 | -14.93% |
| February 10 | 12,371 | -6.48% |
| February 17 | 11,732 | -5.17% |
| February 24 | 11,559 | -1.47% |
| March 3 | 11,525 | -0.29% |
| March 10 | 10,469 | -9.16% |
| March 17 | 10,360 | -1.04% |
On March 24, the Sunday Million stopped the downswing by drawing 10,805 players representing a 4.3% increase over the previous week. In an attempt to stem the tide, PokerStars experimented with a Progressive Knockout format for the March 31 event. it drew 12,790 players. The freezeout format returned the following week and drew what was then an all-time low of 10,316 players.
April 14 was the 13th anniversary of the Sunday Million and featured a $215 buy-in with a $10 million guarantee. The buy-in returned to $109 for the next three weeks and the field size yo-yoed from 11,212 down to 10,224 and then back up to 11,480 – the highest it had been since mid-February.
The Spring Championship of Online Poker also saw changes to the buy-in and schedule. There was a $215 buy-in on May 12 that drew 6,322 players and a $530 buy-in that had 3,008 runners. There was no Sunday Million on May 26 due to the SCOOP Main Event.
As the buy-in dropped, so did the amount that the eventual champion took home. The last $215 buy-in Sunday Million before the change was scheduled to award the winner $157,620.46 and the runner-up $110,609.51. Those two players eventually chopped but each took home a six-figure payday.
In the 14 Sunday Millions with a $109 buy-in since the change, only the champion has pocketed six figures and on February 24, due to a heads-up deal, the winner took home $99,888.91 for the first sub-$100,000 first place prize in Sunday Million history.
| Date | First Place Prize |
| January 27 | $136,892.00 |
| February 3 | $129,213.00 |
| February 10 | $124,602.88 |
| February 17 | $119,324.72 |
| February 24 | $99,888.91* |
| March 3 | $117,222.79 |
| March 10 | $104,126.46* |
| March 17 | $108,192.73 |
| March 24 | $110,898.00 |
| April 7 | $107,737.84 |
| April 21 | $114,039.00 |
| April 28 | $101,770.63* |
| May 5 | $110,747.45* |
| June 2 | $108,784.00 |
| *denotes a deal |
Mantovani understands that PokerStars wants to give more players access to such a prestigious tournament, but feels like they’ve diminished that prestige in the process.
“Even the guys that couldn’t play it before, it doesn’t sound like the same dream, ‘playing the Sunday Million’. I like the fact that it’s more accessible to people, but I don’t know man, I just miss the old days. Everyone I talk to says the same.”
