PokerStars Hopes to Keep away from Extra Points as Ontario Championship of On-line Poker Begins

Now that on-line playing is increasing in Ontario, everybody needs to get in on the motion. PokerStars is becoming a member of the fray with the introduction of its inaugural PokerStars Ontario Championship of On-line Poker (ONCOOP). First, nevertheless, it has to maintain its servers working correctly.

Brazilian soccer star Neymar Jr in a promo photograph as a PokerStars cultural ambassador. The net poker platform is launching a brand new match in Ontario subsequent month. (Picture: PokerStars)

PartyPoker already ran an Ontario-based on-line poker match this month, and BetMGM is reportedly going to introduce its personal model in some unspecified time in the future. Flutter’s PokerStars will add its title to the listing with its ONCOOP starting this weekend.

Gamers might method the digital tables with a bit trepidation, and rightfully so. PokerStars lately handled a significant embarrassment when its most up-to-date World Championship of On-line Poker (WCOOP) got here to a grinding halt as a result of a distributed denial of service (DDoS) assault earlier this month.

Tournaments of All Shapes and Sizes

The ONCOOP has one thing for everybody. The collection runs from October 1-17 and has 132 tournaments on the schedule. By the point the final winner stands up, over CAN$2 million (US$1.45 million) in assured prize cash may have been distributed.

All normal poker codecs can be found, together with Texas Maintain’em, Omaha, and extra. There will probably be DeepStack and Knock-Out occasions, in addition to Turbo and Hyper Turbos.

Purchase-ins begin as little as CAN$5 (US$3.64) and go as much as CAN$2,000 (US$1,455.40). PokerStars will even award Second Likelihood Freerolls value a complete of CAN$35,000 (US$25,469) all through the ONCOOP.

Gamers may also seize a seat in one of many two Principal Occasions. The CAN$50 (US$36.40) buy-in NLHE match has CAN$40,000 in assured prize cash, whereas the CAN$500 (US$364) buy-in NLHE occasion has no less than CAN$200,000 (US$145,600) up for grabs.

There will even be two PokerStars Platinum Passes as a part of the prize pool. These present entry to the PokerStars Gamers Championship (PSPC) within the Bahamas subsequent January. Every go is value US$30,000, which covers the $25,000 buy-in and $5,000 in journey money.

Whereas that is the primary COOP collection in Ontario, it isn’t the primary match PokerStars organized within the province. That belongs to the Ontario Platinum Collection in July.

That collection included 90 occasions and had CAN$1 million (US$727,800) in assured money on the desk. It didn’t draw the group PokerStars had hoped. PokerStars had an overlay of no less than 50% in seven of the occasions. It nonetheless got here out forward, although, as greater than 35 tourneys surpassed their anticipated purpose by no less than 20%.

WPT within the Land Down Beneath

September was a busy month for poker. As PokerStars tried to finish its WCOOP, the World Poker Tour (WPT) was on the lookout for winners within the land down beneath. This month marked the first-ever WPT Australian Principal Tour, which Star Leisure’s Star Gold Coast hosted. The Principal Occasion, with a buy-in of AU$5,400 (US$3,484), was an enormous success, attracting 710 gamers and pushing the prize pool as much as AU$3.55 million (US$2.29 million).

Ultimately, it was a participant who didn’t even wish to be there who received. David Tang of Melbourne had initially deliberate on taking part earlier than he tried to again out on the final minute.

As a substitute, he wished to look at the Grand Remaining of the Australian Soccer League. When he couldn’t cancel his flight, he reluctantly caught with the occasion.

It paid off, too. His first-place end noticed him pocket AU$425,712 (US$274,669). As runner-up, China’s Po Ho took residence AU$277,225 (US$178,865).