Following on from the massive success of the first ever PokerStars Pennsylvania Championship of Online Poker (PACOOP), a second online tournament series is poised to hit the Keystone State later this month!
PokerStars PA Winter Series Schedule
The PokerStars PA Winter Series will run on January 25 – February 1, featuring 30 events. Although not as huge as PACOOP, the Winter Series still offers a cool $675,000 in guarantees, with $100,000 to be awarded in the Main Event.
The series features buy-ins ranging from $30 to $500, with most of the events offering five-figure prize pools. If you’re also a football fan, the series gives you more reason to get in on the action as it will be a football-themed affair, immediately preceding the 54th Super Bowl which takes place on February 2.
The Winter Series events will be named after popular football terms. For example, the three opening events will be called as follows: “The Warm-Up” features a $50 buy-in with $20,000 in guarantees; “The Anthem” has an entry fee of $100 and guarantees $30,000; while a knockout tournament called “The Coin Toss” will give away $15,000 in guarantees and has a buy-in of $200.
The second day of the online festival will see seven events taking place, one of which is “The Blitz”, which is among the biggest-guaranteed events on the Winter Series schedule. For a buy-in of $200, players get the chance to take home a share of the $50,000 in guarantees up for grabs at the event.
Other events within the $200 – $250 buy-in range include “The Sack”, a Super Tuesday edition featuring a buy-in of $250 and $40,000 in guarantees. A Thursday Thrill edition called “The Touchdown” offers $35,000 in guarantees for a $200 buy-in.
The PokerStars series also features loads of other formats, including PKO, PLO, Deepstack, Big Antes, 4-max, 6-max, and 8-max. Buy-ins for these events are in the $100 – $150 range, with up to $15,000 in guarantees.
The schedule offers plenty of options for players of all levels, as there are also smaller events being squeezed in, such as “First Down” and “The Punt” which players can enter for just $30.  “The Spin”, “The Drive”, “Extra Point”, “Hail Mary”, and “Overtime” only require a $50 entry-fee, with between $8,000 – $15,000 in total prize money on offer.
Winter Series PA Main Event
The main attraction of the series will be the Main Event, which is named “The Big Game” which takes place on the final day of the series on February 1. It has a buy-in of $300, and is expected to attract a huge field, as players battle it out for $675,000 in guaranteed prize pool. A smaller version of the event is also available – the Mini Main Event which also takes place on the same day, with a buy-in of just $50. The top finishers will share the $25,000 in guarantees.
PACOOP Success  
The inaugural PACOOP ran on November 30 – December 16, 2019, and received overwhelming response from the newly launched online poker market in Pennsylvania. It managed to surpass its initially advertised guarantee of $1 million, after the tournament attracted more than 12,000 entries, creating $1.5 million in total prize pool.
PACOOP featured a total of 50 events, the main highlight of which was the Main Event, attracting 640 entries to generate $179,200 in total prize pool. 32-year-old Ryan Gerber, a project manager from Alburtis, became the first ever PACOOP Main Event champ, taking home a first-place prize of $31,335.64.
Poker players in Pennsylvania have long been waiting to play online poker without fear of legal repercussions, and when the market finally opened with PokerStars PA being the first operator to go live on November 4, player enthusiasm reached peak levels as shown by the massive revenue recorded by PokerStars PA a month after launch. PACOOP became the first online tournament series in the state, and it was warmly welcomed by players.
Though there were a few overlays, the series was generally successful and exceeded expectations, according to FOX Bet President Matt Primeaux. PokerStars PA partnered with FOX Bet in running the series. PokerStars PA is hoping to replicate that success in the upcoming Winter Series. PokerStars PA has yet to issue its official announcement on the 2020 Winter Series.