PokerStars is wasting no time making its presence known in New Jersey, announcing the first ever New Jersey Spring Championship of Online Poker. With $1.1 million in guaranteed prize money, the series promises to be the biggest one ever held since the state regulated online gaming.

The inaugural championship will take place from May 15-29 and feature 27 events, run in both high-stakes and low-stakes formats, for a grand total of 54 tournaments. The two-week schedule will culminate with a $50 (low) and $500 (high) No Limit Hold’em Main Event, offering $30,000 and $200,000 in guaranteed cash, respectively.

The series offers myriad tournament formats and variants, including Three-Max Hypers, Six-Max Turbos, Ultra Knockouts and Progressive Super Knockouts, among others. Buy-ins start as low as $10 and go all the way up to $1,000 for the No Limit Hold’em High Roller tournament on Tuesday, May 24.

Other standout tournaments include:

• $150 buy-in No Limit Hold’em, $30,000 guarantee (Sunday, May 15)
• $250 buy-in No Limit Hold’em, $100,000 guarantee (Sunday, May 15)
• $300 buy-in No Limit Hold’em Six-Max Turbo (Sunday, May 15)
• $100 buy-in No Limit Hold’em [1R1A] (Monday, May 16)
• $100 buy-in No Limit Hold’em Zoom (Wednesday, May 25)

“The global PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker is one of the must-play poker events of the year,” said 2003 WSOP Main Event champ and Team PokerStars pro Chris Moneymaker. “It’s awesome that it’s coming to New Jersey so that players in the region can experience the exciting tournament structures and the thrill that comes with chasing a major tournament title and big prize money.”

“I can’t wait to play in the first NJSCOOP and I plan to stream most of my play live on Twitch. I would love to win a title in its debut year,” said Moneymaker.

Player of the Series Leaderboard

Consistent series winners will have a chance to win even more prizes by placing on the Player of the Series Leaderboard. Each time a player cashes in an event, they’ll receive points awarded on a sliding scale. The top earners, for both the low and high-stakes tiers, will share in $10,000 in prizes, with the overall winner taking home a trophy and $2,000 cash.

Also up for grabs are two spots on Team USA for the Americas Cup of Poker live event, which will be played out at Resorts Casino in Atlantic City from June 24-25. There, players will compete for at least $100,000 in guaranteed cash.

PokerStars received its license to operate in New Jersey late last year after undergoing heavy scrutiny by New Jersey regulators. The site decided to delay its launch, however, until last month.

With its $1.1 million in NJSCOOP guarantees, the online poker giant narrowly eclipses partypoker’s Garden State Super Series, which gave away $1 million in prizes in its event last year.

If you don’t already have a PokerStarsNJ account you can sign up here and get yourself some of the $1.1 million in guaranteed NJSCOOP prizes.