POKERSTARS GUARANTEES $10 MILLION FOR 2015 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP OF ONLINE POKER MAIN EVENT
Cash and Mega Path satellite qualifiers now under way at PokerStars
ONCHAN, Isle of Man – June 8, 2015 – The 2015 World Championship of Online Poker Main Event will feature a $10 million guaranteed prize pool and take place over two days, starting on Sunday, September 27, at 14.30 ET, PokerStars, an Amaya Inc. (TSX:AYA) brand, has announced.
The $5,200 buy-in World Championship tournament is the richest and most prestigious event of the online poker calendar, with previous events having exceeded the $10 million prize pool mark on four occasions.
In 2014, Fedor ‘CrownUpGuy’ Holz was crowned World Champion, winning $1.3m from a total prize pool of $10.7m, but the record first prize still belongs to Tyson ‘POTTERPOKER’ Marks, the American player who won $2,278,097.50 in 2010.
SATELLITES
There are nearly four months to go until the $5,200 No Limit Hold’em Main Event takes place, but online satellites across a range of stakes have launched that give players of all bankroll levels the chance to qualify for the year’s richest poker tournament for a fraction of the cost.
In addition, Mega Path satellites have also begun, which enable players to qualify from just 1 Frequent Player Point (FPP). Last year a total of 77 players qualified for the $5,200 Main Event through the Mega Path and PokerStars hopes to see a significant increase on that figure in 2015. In 2012, Russian player ‘maratik’ qualified for just 40 FPP and went on to win the Main Event for $1 million.
Players can find the current crop of qualifiers by logging on to PokerStars and clicking ‘Online Events’ > ‘WCOOP’ > ‘All’. More will be added each week, including Sit & Go and Steps qualifiers.
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP HISTORY
The World Championship of Online Poker, which began in 2002, is the longest-running and richest online poker championship series ever, with nearly $450 million in prize money awarded to date. Players and media regard it as the ‘must-play’ event of the year that pitches world-class poker pros against aspiring recreational players, all in pursuit of life-changing sums of money.
Other past champions include JC ‘area23JC’ Tran (2006), Yevgeniy ‘Jovial Gent’ Timoshenko (2009), and David ‘PlayinWasted’ Kaufmann (2013).
For more information, please email press@pokerstars.com.
About PokerStars
PokerStars operates the world’s most popular online poker sites, serving the global poker community. Since it launched in 2001, PokerStars has become the first choice of players all over the world, with more daily tournaments than anywhere else and with the best security online. More than 130 billion hands have been dealt on PokerStars, which is more than any other site.
PokerStars.com and PokerStars.eu operate globally under licenses from the Isle of Man and Malta governments, respectively. PokerStars also holds separate government licenses in the United Kingdom, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain.
PokerStars is a member of The Rational Group, which operates gaming-related businesses and brands, including PokerStars, Full Tilt and the European Poker Tour. In 2012, 2013 and 2014, Rational Group companies in the UK and Isle of Man won recognition as one of the best workplaces in the UK being awarded a top 25 position by the Great Place to Work Institute’s Best Workplaces – Large category rankings. Rational Group entities in Costa Rica and Dublin also achieved the same accolade in their respective local rankings in 2014. PokerStars is owned by Amaya Inc. (TSX: AYA).