PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker Coming Up
It’s almost time for another PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker, and it’s free for any poker blogger with a regularly updated blog that has been live online for at least two months.
This makes the first WBCOOP in two years, with the last World Blogger Championship of Online Poker happening back in 2008.The 2010 WBCOOP runs from January 25 through 31 and is comprised of 7 events: 6 prelim events in mostly No Limit Holdem except with one Pot Limit Omaha event (on January 26) and one 8-Game Mix event (on January 29), and of course the main event, capping off the series this year on January 31.
At each of the 6 prelim events, over $6,000 in 2010 Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) tickets tickets to the SCOOP satellite Steps program will be awarded. At the main event, some approx. $25,000 in 2010 SCOOP tickets will be awarded. PokerStars will also be awarding Spot prizes during the series for the best live event blogging and Tweeting.
There are no direct buy-ins or event Frequent Player Points buy-ins for WBCOOP events. And the only players who are eligible to participate are other online poker bloggers like yours truly. Just remember, you can’t create an online poker blog on the spot just to be able to play in the 2010 WBCOOP because you won’t be eligible. Your blog must be online for at least 2 months and be updated on a regular basis in order for you to be eligible. Of course you need to download pokerstars and have an account as well.
Nineteen Year Old Wins 2010 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure
The PokerStars Caribbean Adventure has come and gone for another year, and made several poker players a million dollars or more richer. The $10,000 main event started on January 5, 2010 at the Atlantis Resort in the exotic Bahamas.
The player pool started out at a record-breaking 1,529. And by the time the pool was drained down to just the final table, it was brimming with poker talent. One of the biggest names in poker at the 2010 PCA final table was Barry Shulman. His son Jeff Shulman made it to the final table of the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event, but got knocked out early, while Barry Shulman himself was the first place winner of the 2009 World Series of Poker Europe just months before. He didn’t fare as well in the 2010 PCA, but didn’t do so shabby either, with this owner of Card Player Magazine pulling in a million dollar third place finish, for $1,350,000.
The winner, however, was a 19-year-old from the online poker world that goes by gibler321 and is known to his parents, at least, as Harrison Gimbel. Claiming the $2,200,000 grand prize from 25-year-old runner-up Ty Reiman, Gimbel has become the youngest player in PCA history to win the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. Reiman’s payday, meanwhile, was $1,750,000.
The PokerStars Caribbean Adventure is always one of the most watched live poker tournaments of the year for several reasons, not least of which is that it marks the start of the new season of the PokerStars European Poker Tour. And the 2010 PCA also marks the start of the inaugural PokerStars North American Poker Tour.
Poker Stars Introduces New Poker Tour For North America: NAPT
There is a new poker tournament in the land-based poker tournament world, and – no surprise – the brand new North American Poker Tour is coming to us from the folks at Poker Stars.
Poker Stars is the host, creator, and sponsor of many of the world’s most popular and profitable poker tournaments – in both online poker and live poker alike.
In terms of online poker tournaments, PokerStars runs the:
- (SCOOP) Spring Championship of Online Poker
- (WCOOP) World Championship of Online Poker
And in terms of real world, live poker, Poker Stars hosts the:
- EPT (European Poker Tour)
- APPT (Asia Pacific Poker Tour)
- (LAPT) Latin American Poker Tour
Season 1 of the North American Poker Tour (NAPT 1) started officially with the just-run 2010 PCA (PokerStars Caribbean Adventure).
The next event on the NAPT 1 is the NAPT Mohegan Sun to be held from February 20 – 24 in Uncasville, Connecticut. Buy-in for the main event at this stop is $5,000.
Following that will be the NAPT Venetian to be held from April 7 to 11 at the Venetian Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada as a part of the regular Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza Tournament. The main event for this stop on the tour also has a buy-in of $5,000.
As with the other PokerStars tour’s, the site will be running satellite qualifiers at PokerStars.com for prize packages awarding free seats in all the various North American Poker Tour events, starting with the aforementioned upcoming two: the NAPT Mohegan Sun in CT in February and the NAPT Venetian in Vegas in April.
Players in the United States and Canada should be thrilled that there’s a live poker tour, one of scant few, catering to them.
Poker Stars Guinness World Record Attempt…Succeeds
This past Sunday, the last Sunday in 2009, Poker Stars tried to beat its previously set World Record for the most number of players in a single online poker tournament. To entice players to participate, PokerStars set the buy-in at $1, but for a guaranteed prize pool of $300,000.
This time the number hit 149,196 players, more than enough to break the record set last July (actually more than twice the number set on July 19, ‘09). This will make the third time that PokerStars has broken the old and set the new Guinness World Record for the most players in an online poker tournament.
In July, Full Tilt Poker simultaneously held a competing attempts to break PokerStars’ last World Record, set in December ‘08, which was by comparison a meager 35,000, and even succeeding in breaking the record, but fell short of World Record acclaim when the PokerStars numbers came in at an even bigger 65,000. This time around, Full Tilt didn’t bother trying to compete in this particular game.
With the blinds increasing every 5 minutes, the tournament took a breakneck pace, finishing up in only 6 hours with first place prize going to Oskar69, who swept up the $50,000 first prize.
Because the buy-in was kept so purposely low in order to succeed in PokerStars’ World Record attempt, not enough money was collected from players to cover the $300,000 guarantee, which means Poker Stars had to cover the difference, making more than half the payouts from this event overlays. We hope PokerStars finds it was worth it.
2010 Poker Stars EPT Germany Event To Be Held For First Time In Berlin
For the very first time, the Poker Stars European Poker Tour’s seasonal stop in Germany, the biggest poker event held in Germany, will be taking place in Berlin. EPT Berlin will take place from March 2 to March 7, 2010. In the last 3 previous years’ EPT Germany events, the host city was Dortmund.
On Berlin’s Marlene-Dietrich-Platz at Potsdamer Platz, Poker Stars will be built a 2-story glass palace made specially for the event. The 2,000 square meter facility will be able to host 1,000 players, all competing for the guaranteed 1 million euros first place prize. This is the first time the EPT Germany event’s 1st prize is so high.
The PokerStars EPT makes 13 stops each season, making it Europe’s biggest live poker tournament series.
The Berlin EPT Main Event is being cosponsored by SPIELBANK BERLIN & POKERFLOOR. Already confirmed to be competing in the event will be Team PokerStars SportStar Boris Becker, the EPT Season 5 Germany event winner Sandra Naujoks (herself from Berlin), and all of Team PokerStars Germany.
Poker Stars members can win free entries into this EPT Berlin event via satellites at PokerStars, though there are a few other EPT events ahead of this one.
Well before the EPT Berlin event, however, is coming the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, January 4 – 14, but satellites for this event have officially ended as of December 27. Then comes the EPT Deauville event January 20 – 25 and the EPT Copenhagen event February 16 – 21.
