Despite Overlays, PokerStars Ontario's First Series is a Success Despite Overlays, PokerStars Ontario's First Series is a Success

Earlier this year, Ontario became the newest regulated online poker market, and PokerStars entered the market a couple of months later. The operator hit the ground running, scheduling the first tournament series for the newest player pool, the Ontario Platinum Series (OPS).

The first tournament series in the new Ontario online poker market is complete, with PokerStars Ontario's OPS. With 90 events over 9 days, the OPS guaranteed more than $1 million (all monetary values in this article are $CDN unless otherwise specified) and generated much interest from Ontario online poker players.

More than 23,000 entries competed for big cash prizes and a shot at scoring a coveted Platinum Pass to the second running of the PokerStars’ Player’s Championship (PSPC). PokerStars Ontario put guarantees of just over $1 million on the series, and in the end, it collected a bit more than that across the 90 games.

Two-thirds of the scheduled games broke their guarantees, with two games pulling in more than double the original guarantee. A total of seven games put more than 50% extra into their prize pools, and more than 35 games were at least 20% above the promised pot.

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PokerStars’ OPS in Detail

With all 90 games in the OPS now complete, the series can only be called a success. While the OPS did not crush the guarantees, by the end of the week, the series at least matched its promised guarantees with a tiny bit of surplus on the back of 23,479 entries.

OPS at a Glance

Total Games 90
Beat Guarantee 60
Missed Guarantee 30
Total Guarantee $1,010,100
Total Collected $1,011,906
Total Prize Pool Awarded
Total Overlays -$101,816
Total Fees $88,379
Total Entries 23,479
More Than 100% Over Guarantee 2
More Than 50% Over Guarantee 7
More Than 20% Over Guarantee 36

While the series posted a little more than $100k in missed guarantees across the 30 events that did not find the promised amount, that shortfall was nearly made up by the $88,379 collected in fees across the series. That leaves a bit of a shortfall the operator had to make up for, though the total prize pools ended up just capping the promised guarantees at the start of the series, despite the ~$100k in overlays.

The best result of the entire series — in terms of the ratio of the prize pool to the guarantee — came in the opening event, the $4k guaranteed Ontario Platinum Series 1. With 474 entries, the $20 game piled more than $8,600 into the prize pool by the time registration closed, for 115.67% above the $4k guarantee.

The other big game that more-than-doubled its guarantee was the $1,200 guaranteed Ontario Platinum Series 17. The $5 buy-in saw 557 entries for a total prize pool of more than $2,500.

There were 36 games across the series that posted prize pools at least 20% higher than the guarantee. Two other notable games were Ontario Platinum Series 16, a $50 buy-in that guaranteed $5k and collected more than $8.6k, and Ontario Platinum Series 34, a $10 buy-in guaranteeing $2,500 that collected nearly $4k in prizes.

While OPS 17 posted the second-highest guarantee increase and the second-highest number of entries in the entire series, the Mini Main Event saw the highest number of entries across the whole series with 623. However, with a guarantee of $40k, those entries only managed to collect a bit more than $28k for the prize pool, making it the worst-performing game in the entire series in terms of guarantee percentage.

Ultimately, the first foray into tournament series in the Ontario online poker market for PokerStars Ontario looks to have been a success. While there was a tiny bit of uncovered overlay over the fees collected, the fact that the games still posted total prizes above the original guarantee for the first series in a new market is certainly a success to be celebrated.

With this first success under its belt, PokerStars Ontario will not be resting on its laurels. While no dates have been announced yet, the operator has signaled its intention to run an ONCOOP series this year with $2 million in guarantees so that Ontario poker players will get a lot of value in the coming months.

Below are the full results from the inaugural edition of the Ontario Platinum Series, sorted by total prizes collected.

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PokerStars ON OPS 2022 Full Results—Sorted by Prize Pool

Name Buy-In Guarantee Entries Collected Diff from Gty
Ontario Platinum Series 74 $300 $200,000 552 $154,560 -23%
Ontario Platinum Series 27 $1,000 $40,000 58 $55,274 38%
Ontario Platinum Series 6 $100 $60,000 492 $45,166 -25%
Ontario Platinum Series 9 $500 $40,000 75 $35,400 -12%
Ontario Platinum Series 60 $200 $30,000 163 $30,400 1%
Ontario Platinum Series 75 $50 $40,000 623 $28,347 -29%
Ontario Platinum Series 19 $100 $18,000 279 $25,612 42%
Ontario Platinum Series 84 $100 $18,000 271 $24,878 38%
Ontario Platinum Series 76 $100 $25,000 222 $20,380 -18%
Ontario Platinum Series 31 $200 $15,000 105 $19,583 31%
Ontario Platinum Series 33 $100 $15,000 211 $19,370 29%
Ontario Platinum Series 2 $100 $15,000 209 $19,186 28%
Ontario Platinum Series 51 $100 $20,000 203 $18,635 -7%
Ontario Platinum Series 41 $100 $15,000 192 $17,626 18%
Ontario Platinum Series 67 $100 $15,000 181 $16,616 11%
Ontario Platinum Series 36 $75 $15,000 213 $14,537 -3%
Ontario Platinum Series 70 $75 $15,000 209 $14,264 -5%
Ontario Platinum Series 11 $75 $18,000 206 $14,060 -22%
Ontario Platinum Series 30 $75 $14,000 206 $14,060 %
Ontario Platinum Series 77 $75 $18,000 202 $13,787 -23%
Ontario Platinum Series 88 $75 $15,000 197 $13,445 -10%
Ontario Platinum Series 64 $75 $12,500 191 $13,036 4%
Ontario Platinum Series 25 $50 $10,000 280 $12,740 27%
Ontario Platinum Series 45 $75 $12,500 163 $11,125 -11%
Ontario Platinum Series 23 $50 $7,500 244 $11,102 48%
Ontario Platinum Series 20 $50 $8,000 224 $10,192 27%
Ontario Platinum Series 14 $50 $7,500 199 $9,055 21%
Ontario Platinum Series 7 $20 $10,000 490 $8,918 -11%
Ontario Platinum Series 43 $50 $8,000 195 $8,873 11%
Ontario Platinum Series 73 $50 $10,000 193 $8,782 -12%
Ontario Platinum Series 57 $50 $6,000 190 $8,645 44%
Ontario Platinum Series 16 $50 $5,000 190 $8,645 73%
Ontario Platinum Series 1 $20 $4,000 474 $8,627 116%
Ontario Platinum Series 4 $30 $6,000 311 $8,490 42%
Ontario Platinum Series 39 $50 $7,500 184 $8,372 12%
Ontario Platinum Series 63 $50 $8,000 182 $8,281 4%
Ontario Platinum Series 79 $50 $8,000 182 $8,281 4%
Ontario Platinum Series 5 $50 $8,000 180 $8,190 2%
Ontario Platinum Series 53 $50 $8,000 180 $8,190 2%
Ontario Platinum Series 89 $50 $7,500 180 $8,190 9%
Ontario Platinum Series 82 $20 $6,000 429 $7,808 30%
Ontario Platinum Series 26 $30 $6,000 271 $7,398 23%
Ontario Platinum Series 54 $30 $6,000 254 $6,934 16%
Ontario Platinum Series 8 $30 $8,000 250 $6,825 -15%
Ontario Platinum Series 24 $30 $5,000 250 $6,825 37%
Ontario Platinum Series 69 $20 $5,000 358 $6,516 30%
Ontario Platinum Series 50 $20 $6,000 355 $6,461 8%
Ontario Platinum Series 18 $20 $5,000 355 $6,461 29%
Ontario Platinum Series 80 $30 $6,000 235 $6,416 7%
Ontario Platinum Series 32 $20 $5,000 352 $6,406 28%
Ontario Platinum Series 15 $30 $6,000 234 $6,388 6%
Ontario Platinum Series 61 $20 $6,000 335 $6,097 2%
Ontario Platinum Series 49 $30 $6,000 223 $6,088 1%
Ontario Platinum Series 42 $20 $6,000 329 $5,988 0%
Ontario Platinum Series 12 $20 $6,000 326 $5,933 -1%
Ontario Platinum Series 62 $30 $6,000 211 $5,760 -4%
Ontario Platinum Series 85 $30 $6,000 210 $5,733 -4%
Ontario Platinum Series 48 $20 $5,000 310 $5,642 13%
Ontario Platinum Series 56 $20 $4,000 295 $5,369 34%
Ontario Platinum Series 40 $20 $4,000 291 $5,296 32%
Ontario Platinum Series 81 $30 $4,000 190 $5,187 30%
Ontario Platinum Series 3 $30 $4,000 188 $5,132 28%
Ontario Platinum Series 46 $30 $5,000 182 $4,969 -1%
Ontario Platinum Series 87 $20 $5,000 255 $4,641 -7%
Ontario Platinum Series 66 $20 $5,000 254 $4,623 -8%
Ontario Platinum Series 68 $30 $3,500 154 $4,204 20%
Ontario Platinum Series 35 $20 $3,000 218 $3,968 32%
Ontario Platinum Series 34 $10 $2,500 432 $3,931 57%
Ontario Platinum Series 38 $10 $2,500 425 $3,868 55%
Ontario Platinum Series 71 $10 $3,000 416 $3,786 26%
Ontario Platinum Series 37 $30 $4,000 137 $3,740 -6%
Ontario Platinum Series 52 $10 $3,500 397 $3,613 3%
Ontario Platinum Series 22 $10 $2,500 351 $3,194 28%
Ontario Platinum Series 44 $10 $3,000 345 $3,140 5%
Ontario Platinum Series 47 $30 $2,500 115 $3,140 26%
Ontario Platinum Series 29 $20 $2,500 150 $2,730 9%
Ontario Platinum Series 58 $20 $2,500 146 $2,657 6%
Ontario Platinum Series 17 $5 $1,200 557 $2,534 111%
Ontario Platinum Series 10 $20 $3,000 138 $2,512 -16%
Ontario Platinum Series 28 $5 $1,500 535 $2,434 62%
Ontario Platinum Series 21 $20 $2,500 119 $2,166 -13%
Ontario Platinum Series 72 $20 $2,500 114 $2,075 -17%
Ontario Platinum Series 13 $5 $2,000 436 $1,984 -1%
Ontario Platinum Series 59 $5 $1,500 410 $1,866 24%
Ontario Platinum Series 78 $20 $2,000 102 $1,856 -7%
Ontario Platinum Series 55 $20 $2,000 97 $1,765 -12%
Ontario Platinum Series 90 $5 $1,200 386 $1,756 50%
Ontario Platinum Series 65 $5 $1,200 384 $1,747 46%
Ontario Platinum Series 83 $5 $1,500 378 $1,720 15%
Ontario Platinum Series 86 $20 $2,000 94 $1,711 -14%