The wait is over.
Last weekend, PokerStars began running satellites into the biggest tournament of the year — the World Series of Poker main event. PokerStars, the site that consistently sends the most players to Las Vegas every year, is the last of the major poker sites to start offering qualifiers into the main event.
PokerStars points out that it has sent more players to the World Series than all other poker sites combined, and it seems determined to match that feat in 2009. WSOP satellites are running around the clock at a variety of levels, whether in the form of sit-and-gos, multi-table tournaments (MTTs), or rebuys.
Players can secure their seats at the Rio through a variety of ways on PokerStars — by way of cash qualifiers, the site’s Steps system, or even through Frequent Player Points (FPP) satellites.
The site is offering an incredible number of different routes into the main event via their cash satellites, especially for the small-stakes player, including a $2 rebuy tournament, a $3 rebuy tournament, a $4.40 triple-shootout tournament, and an $11 double-shootout that feeds into main-event qualifiers. The rebuys run several times a day, and those shootouts are sit-and-gos, beginning once a certain number of people register (216 for the $4.40 tournament, 100 for the $11 tournament).
If you’re looking to spend a little bit more, or if you want to skip the first round of cash satellites, you can win a seat into the main event by finishing at the top of PokerStars’ weekly $650 multi-table tournament, daily $33 rebuy, or daily $215 double shootout.
There are several more ways to win your seat via cash satellites. PokerStars is also running $27 and $80 MTTs; $8.80, $11, and $27 rebuys; a $24 double shootout into a satellite; and a direct qualifier into the main event via a $55 quadruple shootout.
If you’d rather take it one step at a time, PokerStars is once again sending its players to the main event through its Step system. Step 1 is an affordable $7.50 or 500 FPP. If a player can climb the ladder and win six steps, a WSOP bid is his. Steps 1-6 are priced at $7.50, $27, $82, $215, $700, and $2,100, respectively. A Step 4 ticket (worth $215) can also be used to play the Sunday Million or any other major tournament on PokerStars. Steps tourneys are running around the clock.
Of course, if you’d rather not spend a penny while trying to make your millions, you can just use your FPP to try to win a seat into the Big Dance. Each week, PokerStars will send at least three players to the main event in its weekly FPP qualifier (4,000 FPP to enter). If you don’t have 4,000 FPP to spare, you can enter one of their daily satellites, priced at either 40 FPP or 400 FPP, to win a spot in the weekly qualifier.
Whether it’s through cash, steps, or FPP satellites, the prize package for the winners is valued at $12,000. That includes a seat into the $10,000 main event, $1,000 in spending money, and a minimum of eight nights of hotel accommodation at the Palms.
The WSOP main event will have four day ones (July 3-6) and will run until July 15, where it will break until the November final table.
While other poker sites have started to run a few satellites into the less expensive events at the World Series this year, there is no indication PokerStars will follow suit. All of the qualifiers currently available on the site are for the main event.
PokerStars awarded more than 2,000 seats into the 2008 main event, and the popular site was well represented at the final table. The top four finishers of the main event (WSOP champ Peter Eastgate, Ivan Demidov, Dennis Phillips, and Ylon Schwartz), as well as sixth-place finisher Darus Suharto, were all wearing PokerStars gear.
