Online poker giant PokerStars is making its popular Win the Button live tournaments a regular feature of its online poker palette.
The Win the Button format allows the winner of each NLHE hand to assume the dealer button for the next round, allowing that player to make the final decision in each betting round. The format has proven popular at live poker events and was tested earlier this month in Event 59 of the World Championship of Online Poker.
PokerStars will offer 11 daily Win the Button tourneys, with buy-ins ranging from $2.20 to $162. There will also be two ‘majors’ each Saturday; one with a $55 buy-in and a $25k guarantee, while the other will feature a $5.50 buy-in and a $5k guarantee.
Meanwhile, PokerStars’ New Jersey-licensed site has announced the richest ever online poker tourney yet to be conducted in the Garden State’s regulated online market. The New Jersey Championship of Online Poker (NJCOOP) will run from October 15-31 and feature a total guarantee of $1.2m across 43 events.
NJCOOP contestants can choose from a variety of different games and buy-ins, including a $100k guaranteed NLHE High-Roller, a $500 buy-in PLO High Roller and the two-day $200k NLHE Main Event on Oct. 30-31. Online qualifiers are already underway on the site.
NJCOOP players will also have a shot at winning one of 20 available seats at the PokerStars Festival New Jersey 2016 Main Event, part of the company’s first land-based tourney in the state, which gets underway at Atlantic City’s Resorts Casino Hotel on Oct. 29.
The NJCOOP is a clear shot at PokerStars NJ’s local rival, the Borgata/PartyPoker family of poker sites. The NJCOOP guarantee is $50k higher than the $1.15m announced last week for the Borgata/PartyPoker’s Garden State Super Series V, a 75-event promo which gets underway on Oct. 9.
PokerStars NJ has failed to match the initial momentum since its March launch, but it continues to outperform the Borgata/PartyPoker combo and Stars’ parent Amaya Gaming clearly wants to maintain the current pecking order.
