Say goodbye to the EPT LAPT, and APPT…and say hello to the new PokerStars global CHAMPNIONSHIP! The suits at Amaya HQ decided to roll all of the circuits into one big one for a new world order of international poker tournaments. The current events will fall under one of two tours: PokerStars Championship and PokerStars Festival. Everyone will be competing for a unified Global Championship event that will take place at the newly branded PokerStars Championship in the Bahamas stop (say goodbye PCA as well!) in early January 2017.
Welcome to the PokerStars New World Order! PokerStars made a huge announcement today that starting in 2017, their international tours will fall under one umbrella with two different tours called PokerStars Championship and PokerStars Festival. The Championship Events will have buy-ins of $5,000/€5,000, whereas the Festival main events will have much smaller buy-ins. The stops on the Championship tour will last almost two weeks and have as many as 100 tournaments. Those will be the major hotspots like Barcelona, Macau, Monaco, and the Bahamas.
The Festival tour will have more affordable buy-ins (e.g. $1,000-$1,500) and those events will be roughly a week max. The first two stops on the newly branded Festival tour will be New Jersey and London.
PokerStars will kick off their festival with a stop at Resorts Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey on October 29. This festival will last nine days with over 50 tournaments and buy-ins as low as $500.
Highlights from the PokerStars Festival in NJ schedule:
- November 1-5: $1,100 PokerStars Festival Main Event
- October 30-31: $340 PokerStars Cup
- November 4-5: $2,200 PokerStars Festival High Roller
- November 4-6: $230 PokerStars Open
There's plenty of other smaller announcements with the main one. Check out the post on PokerStars blog that has all the finer points and details like the prizes for Player of the Year winner, plus a new online registration system and live kiosks, and there's also a tease about a new website that will consolidate all of PokerStars' live events.
Edgar Stuchly, PokerStars' Director of Live Events
The PokerStars Championship will include top-tier events that will visit the most exciting and prestigious destinations worldwide, similar to the much-loved European Poker Tour, while the PokerStars Festival events have a more regional feel, positioned as an action-packed poker vacation.