Players Await Official PokerStars Christmas Calendar
It’s that time of year again…or is it?
Every December, PokerStars fills its promotional calendar with giveaways and challenges, all to celebrate the holidays. There is usually an array of promotions that appeal to players of all bankroll sizes and play frequency, all with the goal of giving away millions of dollars.
Most years, the holiday promotions begin on December 1 for PokerStars players, though occasionally, the action kicked off during the last week of November. This year, however, there is an unexplained delay in announcing and launching the action, despite Pokerfuse unearthing information that had indicated it would begin on December 1.
We're still sure it will happen (the page we spotted disappeared after we reported, now its back again with new images) and one would think a calendar would start Dec 1. But even for the fashionably late PokerStars, they are cutting this a bit close.https://t.co/zig8jEQ4iT
— Nick Jones (@pokerprojones) November 30, 2018
How can poker players begin celebrating the holidays without online poker promotions?!
More Than Just a Rumor
Nearly two weeks ago, F5 Poker revealed that it found images in the PokerStars client that indicated a Christmas promotion was in the works featuring the chests that are part of the Stars Rewards program.
Christmas Themed Chests Are Coming to PokerStars: https://t.co/ZO169GxipS pic.twitter.com/MXsi177EcP
— F5 (@f5poker) November 19, 2018
Days later, Pokerfuse reported an exclusive tip that PokerStars would, in fact, be launching its Christmas Calendar holiday promotions on December 1. It was to run through December 24 in all major markets with prizes every day that would add up to a total of $2.5 million in rewards. The dot-com players would be eligible to compete and win, as would those in segregated markets like Italy and the combined European group of France, Spain, and Portugal.
While Pokerfuse confirmed the promotion and dates, PokerStars had yet to reveal any such thing on its sites as of Sunday, December 2. The first weekend of the month would have been an ideal time to launch the Christmas Calendar, and many players were expecting it.
Exclusive: PokerStars to Celebrate Festive Period by Giving Away $2.5 Million in Christmas Calendar Chests: https://t.co/TVsjo0tn4k pic.twitter.com/6aO3z3Fw0m
— pokerfuse (@pokerfuse) November 23, 2018
Christmas Calendar Chests
The 24-day promotion was supposed to offer a daily rewards system in which players could collect keys that would open chests. The type of chest – Red, Blue, Bronze, Silver, Gold, or Platinum, depends upon the level of action for each player. One chest could be opened per player per day.
According to Pokerfuse, the Christmas Calendar Chests would include instant prizes that could range from cash to sports bets, Spin & Go tickets to other tournament tickets. There could also be a special Christmas Key in the chest, of which there are three to collect over the entirety of the promotion. Those keys could be worth additional cash prizes of up to $50,000.
Each chest varies based on the amount and level of play per player, but there are standards and probabilities of winning various prizes for each chest.
Each chest has a slight chance of one in 10,000 of holding the key to $50,000, but all other changes are in the 20% range:
–Red may be $4, $4.25, $5, $5.50, or $6
–Blue may be $10, $11.50, $12.50, $13.25, or $15
–Bronze may be $17.75, $18.50, $20, $21, or $22.50
–Silver may be $19.75, $22.50, $25, $27.50, or $30
–Gold may be $50, $60, $75, $90, or $100
–Platinum may be $200, $250, $274.50, $300, or $225.25
All of the cash prizes will be revealed on Christmas Day, December 25, if reports are true.
7/ One Christmas thing – @pokerfuse broken the story late last week of PokerStars' planned Christmas Calendar promotion. The page we spied has since been removed. $2.5M in prizes.https://t.co/kabaXhpdgm pic.twitter.com/7SCA447gI1
— Nick Jones (@pokerprojones) November 27, 2018
Could There Be Even More?
As Pokerfuse pointed out, though this time without any confirmation from PokerStars, there was a significant online poker tournament series in December 2017. The Winter Series on PokerStars offered 150 tournaments with a cumulative total of approximately $25 million in prize pool guarantees. The series was such a success, though, that many of those guarantees were surpassed, and the actual prize pools neared $40 million.
The last Winter Series ran from December 25 to January 7, piggybacking on the Christmas Calendar Chests and pushing through the holidays into the new year. Every tournament had four buy-in levels – Micro, Low, Medium, and High – and there were numerous formats and poker variants offered.
It would make sense to bring the series back, considering players responded so favorably to it.
Such a repeat series may not be announced until later in December, but at this point, the entirety of PokerStars’ holiday promotions schedule remains to be seen.
