Blowout Series Replaces Winter Series as PokerStars' Huge New Year Online Poker Festival Blowout Series Replaces Winter Series as PokerStars' Huge New Year Online Poker Festival
Key Takeaways
  • PokerStars has seemingly sunset its thrice-run Winter Series brand in the dot-com market, relaunching it as Blowout Series.
  • It guarantees a total of $60 million, up $10 million on the 2018-2019 series and almost 2.5 times larger than its debut.
  • Four additional tournaments, called Big Blowouts, are held each Sunday over the course of the series and guarantee $5 million.
  • The real standout—and the toughest challenge PokerStars has set itself—is the New Year’s Bash.

PokerStars has seemingly sunset its thrice-run Winter Series brand in the dot-com market, relaunching it as Blowout Series to straddle Christmas and New Year.

The series is bigger than last year’s by every metric: Larger series guarantee, higher average guarantee, broader schedule and longer duration.

This time around, PokerStars is guaranteeing a total of $60 million, up $10 million on the 2018-2019 series and almost 2.5 times larger than when Winter Series debuted in 2017.

Blowout Series “is intended to see out this crazy year in style as it pushes into what we all hope is a happier New Year,” PokerStars announced yesterday on its blog.

The number of events has also expanded, from 242 last year to 268 this time around, but the average per event is still higher, climbing to almost $224,000 per event. The series is spread over 24 days, also the longest to date.

“It will take a tournament series that ranks alongside the likes of SCOOP and WCOOP to manage that, and Blowout Series is exactly that,” PokerStars stated. “It also coincides with that time of the year when life suits kicking back to play some cards.”