The burgeoning United States online poker market is still forming. It has taken more than a decade to put several American states in the position of regulating their own online poker sites. PokerStars has been an integral part of creating successful individual markets, first with its launch in New Jersey. For nearly 1.5 years, PokerStars was the only state-regulated site available in Pennsylvania, and it was the first operator to launch a poker site in Michigan.
While PokerStars is not yet able to combine those three sites and share prize pools across state lines, it didn’t shy away from a US series. The Spring Championship of Online Poker – the second-largest online poker series in PokerStars’ history – took place recently in all three states. New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Michigan had to host their own individual SCOOPs, but they were all quite successful.
And since PokerStars kindly reports all of its series numbers and milestones, it enables us to pass that along. It gives some insight into the markets and their potential.
PASCOOP: April 17 – May 3
This was the first of the three 2021 SCOOP series to run, giving Pennsylvania 40 events, which translated into 120 tournaments, and more than $2M in total guarantees.
And the results showed a bigger interest in the PASCOOP than anticipated. PokerStars added an extra event and exceeded prize pool expectations.
-41 events (123 tournaments)-47,000+ tournament entries-$2,642,485.55 prize money awarded--$300 buy-in NLHE Main Event = 1,015 entries, $284,200 prize pool, kingboss93 won for $46,410.66--$75 buy-in Mid Main Event = 816 entries, $55,692 prize pool, fubadbeatbob won for $9,380.07--$30 buy-in Mini Main Event = 1006 entries, $27,463.80 prize pool, s3agoat1 won for $4,485.59
Three players in the series grabbed three PASCOOP titles each: ChrundleTheGr8, thewhitesmith, and waltsnotdeadyet. And nine players claimed two titles each.
MISCOOP: May 8-24
The Michigan Spring Championship of Online Poker was the state’s inaugural one. There had been an MICOOP earlier in the year, a series to celebrate the new site in Michigan, and it did so well that PokerStars increased on the original $1M guarantee…twice throughout the series. And in the end, the total of 28,830 entries resulted in more than $2.2M awarded.
So, the first MISCOOP offered 40 events and $2M in guarantees. And players participated in numbers that exceeded those expectations, too.
-40 events (120 tournaments)-40,000+ tournament entries-$2,356,657.40 prize money awarded--$300 buy-in NLHE Main Event = 871 entries, $243,880 prize pool, Stozypokes won for $41,074.16--$75 buy-in Mid Main Event = 577 entries, $40K prize pool (overlay), Po$ter Nutbag won for $7,065.32--$30 buy-in Mini Main Event = 709 entries, $20K prize pool (overlay), NitWhitmer won for $3,406.59
There was one tenacious player named Dublistic who won an impressive four titles in this MISCOOP series. No one took down three events, but eight players became double-event winners.
NJSCOOP: May 8-24
New Jersey is the smallest of the individual American PokerStars markets, but the demand was high for a variety of tournaments. There were 55 events and 165 tournaments scheduled, adding up to $1.2M in guarantees. That varied a bit as the action moved forward.
In all, though, the total prize pools exceeded the guarantees and awarding some substantial wins:
-55 events, 163 tournaments-26,000+ entries-$1.36M+ prize money awarded--$300 buy-in NLHE Main Event = 391 entries, $109,480 prize pool, TrashNinja00 won for $18,183.19--$50 buy-in Mini Main Event = 332 entries, $15,106 prize pool, TheDrain732 won for $2,827.72
New Jersey players were quite serious about playing multiple events, as four players won four events each: AvaGray, 09123459, Barney889, and TopDogCD. Ten players won three titles each, and sixteen competitors took down two wins each.
PokerStars US SCOOP Totals
For those three states and their respective SCOOP series, the totals were ones to set the bar for the years to come. And the bar is already high, per these numbers:
Look for more series to come and new markets as states like West Virginia and eventually Connecticut open for license applications. There could be another PokerStars site in the United States by the end of 2021.
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