Last week, world-renowned poker brand PokerStars announced that its wildly successful and record-setting PokerStars Players No-Limit Hold’em Championship (PSPC) will be returning in January 2023. Following a two-year hiatus, the PSPC goes back to the Bahamas, along with its long-running PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) tour.
After two years of live poker grinding to a halt due to the COVID-19, in-person tournaments are coming back to venues worldwide and PokerStars is, once again, making its mark on the global poker landscape.
Following a successful EPT Prague held last month, PokerStars has announced a schedule for the next 12 months, which, once again, includes its pair of prestigious poker tournaments in the Bahamas.
This time around, the operator will host both the PCA and the PSPC — both scheduled to take place in late January 2023 and both returning after a hiatus of four years.
For live tournament poker players, this has been the news they have been waiting for, as the tournaments promise some of the best live poker action around, held in a tropical paradise.
Along with these, PokerStars also announced a number of new EPT, UKIPT, and ESPT stops for the following months, with a lot of exciting action ahead of us before the end of 2022.
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PCA and PSPC are Coming Back
The PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) is one of the most legendary tournaments on the entire circuit. Hosted in the lush tropical paradise of the Bahamas, the Main Event of this festival hosted some legendary showdowns, with past champions including Gus Hansen, Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier, and David “Chino” Rheem.
With millions of dollars on the line and hundreds of players in contention, PCA was the flagship tournament of PokerStars’ annual schedule for over a decade. However, its branding was retired in 2018 and ran under a new title, Championship Bahamas. The new branding did not do any good and the operator revived both PCA and EPT tours in 2019.
The PCA made a return in 2019 and was accompanied by the inaugural edition of PokerStars Players No-Limit Hold’em Championship (PSPC) and the event was a massive success.
The field of 1,039 players, many of whom qualified by winning the PokerStars Platinum Pass, saw Ramon Colillas take home a massive cash prize of $5.1 million and the first ever PSPC title.
Later that year, PokerStars announced the second edition of PSPC but this time it was meant to run in Barcelona — the hometown of Colilass.
Just as everyone was hoping for the event to return, the pandemic made that impossible, with the PSPC event getting postponed twice, in both 2020 and 2021. After a long two-year wait, PokerStars has now announced both Bahamas festivals are back— bigger and better than ever.
The 2023 PCA is scheduled to run between January 22 and February 3, while the PSPC will start a bit later, on January 30, and also conclude on February 3.
Both festivals will be hosted in the beautiful Baha Mar Hotel & Resort, Nassau, and we can expect a number of exciting side events, high-rollers, and cash games to run along with the Main Events.
The PCA has traditionally been a $10k tournament, while the PSPC came with the price tag of $25k in 2019 and became the biggest ever $25k tournament of all time.
The same buy-ins are scheduled for 2023, with Platinum Pass holders having the opportunity to play in the PSPC without paying the buy-in.
Ample opportunities to win a Platinum Pass or qualify for the PCA will be available at PokerStars over the coming months, which means everyone will have a fair shot at booking a seat to play poker in paradise.
- Play one hand & get $150 in bonus play funds
- Top-quality mobile app
- Best online MTT schedule
EPT, UKIPT, and ESPT are All on the Schedule
Other PokerStars-sponsored live poker tours have already resumed, with EPT Prague running in March this year, and players currently leaving London following another successful edition of UKIPT London.
The newly announced PokerStars schedule has just given us some insight into other upcoming events, with the following major festivals you should be on the lookout for:
- April 28 — May 7: EPT Monte Carlo
- May 16 — 22: UKIPT Dublin
- June 18 — 26: ESPT/UKIPT Malta
- August 8 — 21: EPT Barcelona
- December 7 — 18: EPT Prague
The EPT will be returning to Barcelona for the first time in three years. This is also the first time we will see the tour stop in Prague twice in a single year. The Monte Carlo event is now just weeks away, giving European poker grinders much to look forward to.
Players with smaller bankrolls will have a chance to compete at UKIPT and ESPT stops in Dublin and Malta, giving them a chance to visit these two exquisite locations and play poker at the top level for affordable buy-ins.
We can officially say that live poker is back and there seems to be no stopping it, as this year’s live events are expected to be some of the biggest held in the game’s history.
