We are excited to announce that we will be guaranteeing $1 million per week across our tournaments for our shared Michigan and New Jersey pool.
The US online poker market has been talking about shared liquidity for what seems like forever, but the benefits are finally showing. With the player pools of New Jersey and Michigan now combined on the PokerStars US Network, the operator is touting the biggest weekly guarantee in the US industry.
At the beginning of 2023, PokerStars US became the first operator in the US online poker market to combine state player pools since New Jersey joined Nevada and Delaware on the rival WSOP in 2017. When Michigan joined the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement (MSIGA) in May 2022, it set the stage for operators in the state to combine their player pools across state lines, but there was still some technical work to be done on the operator side before things could move forward.
PokerStars US was the first operator to take advantage of the new situation, coming online with a shared player pool between MI and NJ on Jan 1, 2023. To celebrate the new player pool, the operator threw a party with $150k guaranteed in two tournaments on the new two-state network for the very first time.
Since then, the new shared pool has gone from strength to strength and now offers the biggest weekly prizes in the US online poker industry, with $1 million in guaranteed prizes every week. That comes through various daily and weekly games with buy-ins ranging from 5 to $250.
- Play one hand & get $150 in bonus play funds
- Top-quality mobile app
- Best online MTT schedule
$1 Million per Week in NJ & MI Combined
The combined liquidity of NJ & MI enables us to reinforce our weekly schedule with more tournaments available every day, a wider variety of buy-ins, bigger guarantees, and giving our players the best available in the market.
With just under 20 million total people, the combined pool of New Jersey and Michigan creates the biggest poker market in the US right now. The only other multi-state network in the industry currently — the WSOP US network including NJ, NV, and DE — serves around 13.5 million people. In comparison, still-siloed Pennsylvania has about 13 million people on its own.
That massive player pool has allowed PokerStars US to bump up the guarantees on its games in the NJ/MI combined market, and players in the market can now play for up to $1 million per week. The guarantees are spread across various nightly and weekly games, with buy-ins starting as low as $5.
“We are excited to announce that we will be guaranteeing $1 million per week across our tournaments for our shared Michigan and New Jersey pool,” said Severin Rasset, Managing Director for PokerStars in the US. “The combined liquidity of NJ & MI enables us to reinforce our weekly schedule with more tournaments available every day, a wider variety of buy-ins, bigger guarantees, and giving our players the best available in the market.”
$500k Guaranteed Weekly in PA
While Pennsylvania is the odd state out at the moment as the only state with active online poker that is not already part of the MSIGA, PokerStars US has not ignored the market. With about 65% of the combined population of the MI/NJ compact, even on its own, the PA online poker market holds plenty of value.
With PA players still only playing against other players in the Keystone State, the guarantees are a bit smaller than the two-state network, but $500k per week is nothing to scoff at. PA players have access to a weekly and daily schedule similar to MI/NJ, with a few regional differences. One key difference is that the Nightly Stars game in Pennsylvania runs at 6:30 pm instead of 7.
See below for some of the biggest games on the new $1 million weekly schedule on PokerStars NJ/MI. PokerStars PA players will find a similar schedule with smaller guarantees and regional time differences. See the PokerStars PA lobby for complete details.
- Play one hand & get $150 in bonus play funds
- Top-quality mobile app
- Best online MTT schedule
Big Games on the $1 Million MI/NJ Weekly Schedule
* Reoccurring nightly tournaments:
- 6:00 pm — Mini Nightly Stars ($25, $10k Gtd)
- 7:00 pm — Nightly Stars ($50, $12.5k Gtd)
- 7:00 pm — Nightly Stars Knockout ($50, $12.5k Gtd)
- Weekly Tournaments:
- Sunday — Sunday Special ($100, $75k Gtd)
- Monday — Battle Royale ($100, $20k Gtd)
- Tuesday — Super Tuesday ($100, $22.5k Gtd)
- Wednesday — Wednesday Storm ($100, $22.5k Gtd)
- Thursday — Thursday Thrill ($100, $22.5k Gtd)
- Friday — Friday Night Fight ($100, $22.5k Gtd)
- Saturday: Deep Stack Saturday ($100, $20k Gtd)
