PokerStars NJ is bringing back one of its most popular promotions this weekend: Half-Price Sunday.
The promotion is also being run simultaneously in the other two states were PokerStars operates: Michigan and Pennsylvania. Buy-ins will be cut in half for five major events on Sunday, October 10 — specifically, the Sunday Warm-Up, Sunday Storm, Sunday Special, Sunday High Roller and Sunday Supersonic.
The tournaments will run at their normal times and offer the same guaranteed prize pools; only the buy-ins are being changed.
- $150 in free funds
- Great tournament schedule
- Excellent player traffic
In the Garden State, more than $40,000 will be up for grabs. Combined, the operator is offering a total of more than $180,000 in guaranteed prize money across all three states, including more than $80,000 in Pennsylvania and more than $60,000 in Michigan.
Prize pools exceeded guarantees last time
When PokerStars NJ ran Half-Price Sunday the last time, on July 18, it was very successful—at least in terms of the prize pool.
In that running of the promotion, the guaranteed prize pool was $26,500 for all five events played that day. But buy-ins totaling $162.50 lifted the eventual prize pool to $36,384, or 37.3% above the guarantee.
That was much better than in Michigan and Pennsylvania, where the prize pools were 18.88% and 7.84% above their guarantees, respectively.
New Jersey’s series attracted 628 entries, including 194 for the Sunday Warm-Up, 295 for the Sunday Special and 139 for the Sunday Supersonic.
But buy-ins were higher in New Jersey than in Michigan and Pennsylvania, where they totaled $90. In the Garden State, the buy-in was $25 for the Sunday Warm-Up, $100 for the Sunday Special and $37.50 for the Sunday Supersonic, for a total of $162.50.
That meant that for every $1 spent for the buy-in, there was $223.90 available in prize money. Michigan and Pennsylvania fared much better by that measure, at $634.05 and $1,048.44, respectively. When all three states Half-Price Sunday events from July 18 are combined, the prize pool totaled $94,360, or 7.84% above the $87,500 that was guaranteed.
Still, the prize pools in New Jersey went way over the guarantees.
Initially, PokerStars NJ had $3,500 guaranteed at the Sunday Warm-Up, but the event ultimately had a prize pool of $4,559, or 30.26% above the guarantee.
The Sunday Special and the Sunday Supersonic saw even higher prize pools. $20,000 was guaranteed at the Sunday Special and $3,000 was promised at the Sunday Supersonic. These ultimately grew to prize pools of $27,081 and $4,744—35.41% and 58.14% above their guarantees.
Women’s Sunday offering $2K this weekend
PokerStars NJ will also hold its Women’s Sunday event on October 10 at 2:40 pm ET. Late registration will be open for the first 90 minutes, and players will be allowed to re-enter once during that time.
The women’s-only tournament will feature a $2,000 guaranteed prize pool for a buy-in of only $22. The operator said it has sweetened the prize pool by adding $587 worth of tickets to its Bounty Builder Series for the top 10 finishers.
The operator will award tickets to the winners this way:
- 1st place: $215 Bounty Builder Series ticket;
- 2nd and 3rd place: $109 Bounty Builder Series tickets; and
- 4th through 10th place: $22 Bounty Builder Series tickets.
To find the Women’s Sunday event, search for Tournament ID: 3275271640.
PokerStars said there will also be several satellite tournaments offered during Women’s Sunday, with buy-ins as low as 22 cents and 55 cents. There are also tournaments running at all hours, including some with buy-ins of $2.20 and $4.40.
