PokerStars Winter Series Heats Up Holiday Season with $40 Million Prizepool

December 14th, 2018 | by Greg Shaun

Hot on the heels of Partypoker hosting the richest online MTT in history, PokerStars is looking to up the ante with a new $40 million tournament series.

The new PokerStars Winter Series will give away at least $40 million and take the operator’s festive prizepool to $85 million. (Image: PokerStars)

Announced on December 12, the Winter Series will feature 60 events over a 16-day period. Headlining the $40 million run of tournaments will be a selection of four-figure buy-in tournaments, including two $5,200 high rollers and an identically priced main event.

Festive Treats for All

To ensure the festival is accessible to everyone, PokerStars Winter Series will be open to players at four distinct levels: micro, low, medium and high. In addition to tournament entry fees starting at $0.55, a selection of Winter Series qualifiers and Spin & Go satellites will take place between December 23 and January 7.

In addition to $40 million in guaranteed prize money during PokerStars Winter Series, an additional $45 million will be on offer through a variety of regular MTTs and offers.

As well as guaranteeing $85 million over a 16-day period on its international platform, PokerStars’ regional sites will get their own selection of events. For players in France, Spain and Portugal, the Southern European Winter Series will feature €20 million/$22.6 million in guaranteed prize money across 297 events.

More Records Tumble As 2018 Ends

Running at the same time as its international counterparts in New Jersey, India and the rest of the world, the European festival will give PokerStars another record. Since liquidity sharing allowed PokerStars to pool players from France, Spain and Portugal, it has set the pace with two tournament festivals.

The inaugural Trio Series in June gave away more than $7 million before the Southern Europe Championship of Online Poker (SECOOP) raised the bar with $11.5 million in guaranteed prizes.

With Partypoker keeping on the pressure on its closest rival with its Online Millions event, PokerStars has almost doubled its previous efforts in Southern Europe. Although the forthcoming Winter Series won’t surpass the $21,835,000 global record set by Partypoker, the innovation as a whole will give away more than $100 million.

In closing out the year with a lucrative new tournament series, PokerStars is setting the tone for 2019. As live and online participation rates reached new heights in 2018, the emerging rivalry between two of the industry’s leading operators looks set to create more value for players next year.