On the back of a crushing start to first-ever Michigan Championship of Online Poker (MICOOP) at PokerStars MI in the newly launched Michigan online poker market, the operator has bumped up the guaranteed prize money.
The MICOOP series got off to a flying start last Saturday with every tournament attracting so many players that the prize pools were more than double and in one case even tripled.
$1 million was originally guaranteed for the inaugural MICOOP series spread over 60 events.
It seems that even a seven-figure overall guarantee is not enough to meet the appetite of poker players in the Wolverine State who had been longing for nearly a decade to play the PokerStars’ flagship Championship series.
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Enjoy Boosted Guarantees this Weekend on PokerStars MICOOP Series
In response to a huge influx of players, the operator has adjusted the prize money: Guarantees for all MICOOP tournaments scheduled to run this weekend have been doubled.
Each and every tournament for the next two days has been increased but the biggest boost came to the $250 buy-in Sunday Special SE. It originally had a $50,000 guarantee when the series was announced. Now, this has been upped to $100,000—the same amount that is promised for the Sunday Special taking place on PokerStars PA as part of the ongoing Bounty Builder Series.
The first mixed-game event of the MICOOP festival HORSE that is slotted to run tomorrow has been increased by $3000 to $6000.
Other standout tournaments that had their guarantees raised:
- Event #27: A $50 buy-in Rebuy has been raised to $20,000 guarantee from $10,000.
- Event #28: A $100 buy-in Saturday Speedway has also increased by the same figure now guaranteeing $20,000.
- Event #29: The $100 buy-in Marathon event on Sunday has been bumped to $50,000 from $25,000.
- Event #30: The $50 buy-in Sunday Warm-up now guarantees $25,000 instead of $12,500.
- Event #32: The Mini version of Sunday Special has been boosted to $30,000 from $15,000.
No changes have been made to the buy-ins of any of these tournaments.
MICOOP Weekend Tournaments Guarantees Doubled
| Date | DoW | Event # | Game | Format | Original Guarantee | New Guarantee |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feb-27 | Sat | 26 | HORSE | Turbo | $ 3,000 | $ 6,000 |
| Feb-27 | Sat | 27 | NLHE | Rebuy | $ 10,000 | $ 20,000 |
| Feb-27 | Sat | 28 | NLHE | Turbo Saturday Speedway SE | $ 10,000 | $ 20,000 |
| Feb-28 | Sun | 29 | NLHE | 8-Max Marathon | $ 25,000 | $ 50,000 |
| Feb-28 | Sun | 30 | NLHE | Sunday Warm Up SE | $ 12,500 | $ 25,000 |
| Feb-28 | Sun | 31 | NLHE | Sunday Special SE | $ 50,000 | $ 100,000 |
| Feb-28 | Sun | 32 | NLHE | Sunday Special Mini | $ 15,000 | $ 30,000 |
| Feb-28 | Sun | 33 | PLO | 8-Max Turbo | $ 5,000 | $ 10,000 |
| Feb-28 | Sun | 34 | NLHE | 6-Max | $ 10,000 | $ 20,000 |
| Feb-28 | Sun | 35 | NLHE | Hyper-Turbo Sunday Supersonic SE | $ 10,000 | $ 20,000 |
| $ 150,500 | $ 301,000 |
Don’t forget that the series is being accompanied by Daily Second Chance Freerolls giving away over $1000 in MICOOP tickets every day to players who bust out of the money. There is also a Main Event Depositor Freeroll giving away 35 tickets to the Main Event, each valued at $300.
MICOOP Now Guarantees At Least $1.2 Million, Further Bump Can be Expected
With this increase in guaranteed prize money, the series overall guarantee has shot up to $1.2 million from $1 million.
Given the turnout the MICOOP festival has received, PokerStars’ decision to boost the guarantees is perhaps not so surprising. Indeed, pokerfuse had rightly speculated that the operator could pump up the guarantees for the remaining MICOOP events when we reported the numbers for the first weekend.
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As of now, 22 MICOOP events have been completed, distributing nearly three-quarters of a million dollars in prize money and guarantees have been smashed by almost 100%. The number of entrants that have participated in the series so far has gone up over 10,000.
The opening event still holds the largest prize pool of the series. It attracted 883 entries to amass a prize pool of over $80,000—almost three times more than its original guarantee.
The Sunday Special with a tentative $40,000 guarantee drew 430 entrants for $200 each to produce almost $80,000 in prize money. Its Mini edition saw the biggest turnout of the series so far, attracting over 1200 entries amounting to a $28k prize pool.
With at least $800,000 still to be given away, the series is well on course to award a minimum of $1.5 million in prize money and could even near $2 million.
However, the operator has yet to increase guarantees for the third and final week. It is possible that the operator could further boost the guarantees of MICOOP and peak to $1.5 million series guarantee.
