By Joe Zusman | October 25, 2007

Party Poker led the way with steps tournaments, where one could progress up the sit-and-go staircase, starting with a small buy-in, and have the chance to make hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars.Other poker rooms followed suit, the rooms on the Microgaming network come to mind, but for the most part, steps have been Party’s domain.

Enter PokerStars.

Stars has introduced its PCA Steps, so named because, instead of cash, the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow is a $12,000 prize package for the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure.This includes the $8,000 seat in the tournament plus money for lodging, meals, travel, and other expenses.The Steps tickets have no cash value once the promotion ends, but PokerStars does plan on starting new Steps tournaments for other large buy-in tournaments, and any unused tickets will most likely be valid for those.

The smallest buy-in, for Step One, is just $7.50 or 500 FPP.Players can buy-in directly with cash or FPP through Step Four if they want to skip some levels, but Steps Five and Six can only be entered with cash or a Steps ticket (the final Step costs $2,100 to enter).In Steps One through Five, the top two finishers move up to the next Step.The other players may be awarded a re-try at the current Step or a previous Step, depending on which Step they are on.

For those that reach Step Six, there are two options available.One is just a standard nine-handed sit-and-go like the other steps, but only the winner is awarded the prize package.Only the bottom two finishers walk away empty handed, however, as the rest win cash.The second option is a two-table sit-and-go in which the top three players win the prize packages and no other prizes are awarded.

Expect the two-table sit-and-go’s to fill up slowly, as they obviously require more people who have made it that high, plus the odds of winning any sort of prize are lower than in the single-table option.

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