EARN YOUR PLACE AMONG THE BEST AS POKERSTARS REVEALS SCHEDULE FOR PRESTIGIOUS SPRING CHAMPIONSHIP OF ONLINE POKER

More than $45 million guaranteed across 400 tournament opportunities for all players to earn their greatness

The full schedule for poker’s first major online series of the year, PokerStars prestigious Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP), has been unveiled featuring 136 events and more than $45 million guaranteed.

From March 1 to 25, players have the chance to earn their greatness once more and battle for an acclaimed SCOOP title across three weeks of elite online poker action. The 136-event schedule (with a total of 400 tournaments) offers low, medium, and high buy-in levels from $5.50 to $15,000, and a wide range of formats including No-Limit Hold’em, PLO, 8-Game, Mystery Bounties, Turbo, and Deep Stack events, making SCOOP accessible for everyone.

KEY SCHEDULE HIGHLIGHTS

The flagship Main Events will be a schedule highlight and will award a total of $5.5 million across the NLHE Main Events on March 22, and $550,000 across the PLO Main Events on March 23.

• $109 SCOOP NLHE Main Event Low – $1.5 million guaranteed
• $1,050 SCOOP NLHE Main Event Med – $2 million guaranteed
• $5,200 SCOOP NLHE Main Event High – $2 million guaranteed
• 109 SCOOP PLO Main Event Low – $100,000 guaranteed
• $1,050 SCOOP PLO Main Event Med – $200,000 guaranteed
• $5,200 SCOOP PLO Main Event High – $250,000 guaranteed

Other highlights of the 18th edition of SCOOP include:

• March 1 – $215 Sunday Million PKO – $1 million guaranteed
• March 8 – $22 Mystery Sunday Special, $300,000 guaranteed – All-in Shoot Out for United Kingdom & Ireland players to award an Emerald Pass to the Irish Open on March 10 at 7am GMT
• March 8 – $109 Sunday Million PKO – $1 million guaranteed
• March 15 – $55 Mini Sunday Million PKO – $500,000 guaranteed – All-in Shoot Out for United Kingdom & Ireland players to award an Emerald Pass to the Irish Open on March 17 at 7am GMT
• March 15 – $530 Sunday Million – $1 million guaranteed

As well as the huge prizes and trophies on offer, players can also compete in the SCOOP Leaderboards where an additional $100,000 in cash prizes will be awarded across the Low, Medium and High Player of the Series Leaderboards.

As ever, there are a number of qualification routes giving players the chance to qualify into SCOOP events for a fraction of the buy-in. Routes include satellites from just $0.55, the SCOOP Lucky Dip where $500,000 in SCOOP tickets are up for grabs and the $55 Power Path Express SCOOP Edition, on March 1st,where more than $200,000 in SCOOP Power Passes and Main Event tickets will be awarded to boost players’ grind to greatness. Finally, all players are still in time to crack open a SCOOP Prize Vault and earn a SCOOP ticket worth up to $1,050 upon opt-in.

“SCOOP is where greatness isn’t given, it’s earned. Every title represents weeks of preparation, relentless competition and beating the toughest fields in online poker. That’s what makes a SCOOP win so special,” said Steve Clarricoats, Associate Director of Poker Operations at PokerStars. “With a huge schedule and accessible buy-ins and formats, SCOOP remains the title every online player wants on their record.”

For 17 years, SCOOP has been appointment poker of the highest order and winning a SCOOP title has been a bucket list dream for poker players all over the world. More than $1.4 billion in prize pools have been awarded to players since SCOOP started in 2009, with some of the world’s best players earning coveted SCOOP trophies.

Sweden’s Simon “C. Darwin” Mattsson is the greatest player in SCOOP history having earned 14 titles, followed by fellow Swede Niklas “Lena900” Astedt and the UK’s Benny “RunGodlike” Glaser who both have 11 titles, with Benny being the most decorated player in COOP history also having a record-leading 16 WCOOP titles.

For more information about SCOOP head to the PokerStars website or PokerStars Blog.