PokerStars’ SCOOP is Back with $55 Million Up For Grabs

March 31st, 2017 | by Kaycee James

PokerStars’ annual Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) has just been announced and this year there are some interesting changes to the schedule.

Will this year’s SCOOP High Main Event winner bag more than Talal Shakerchi did in 2016? (Image: partypoker.com)

As ever, the online tournament series will feature buy-ins at three different levels: low, medium and high.

For those at the lower end of spectrum, buy-ins will start from as little as $5.50 while at the upper end of the spectrum, high rollers will be able to stake as much as $25,000 in two special events.

More Action and More Money

As well as offering events for players of all persuasions, this year’s SCOOP will run for longer than normal.

In a bid to cram more than 170 individual tournaments into a neat schedule, the festival will take place over more than three weeks between April 30 and May 22.

In fact, what’s interesting about this year’s festival is that things will get underway with a selection of Phase tournaments. Thanks to the addition of an extra week of action, PokerStars will be running the Phase tournaments costing $11, $109 and $1,050 at times designed to suit casual players.

By kicking off at various times throughout the day between April 30 and May 6, these tournaments should give more players a chance to join the action thanks to the staggered start times.

In addition to offering more ways for players to join the action, SCOOP 2017 will be the richest incarnation of the series to date. Even before players ante-up, PokerStars is putting up $55 million, which is $15 million above last year’s guarantee.

The final interesting addition to this year’s schedule is the “Win the Button” events. As the name suggests, these tournaments allow players to win the button (the most advantageous spot at the table) each time they win a hand.

Since being introduced in 2016, these tournaments have become a popular part of PokerStars’ weekly schedule at stakes ranging from $2.20 up to the $162 Ultra Deep. During SCOOP, players will be able to join the action for $5.50 or as much as $2,100 if their pockets are deep enough.

High Rollers Will Steal the Show

Naturally, this year’s highlights will be the two $25,000 high roller events as well as the main event. The former tournaments will see the game’s finest battle it out in an 8-max format as well as heads-up.

For those with an eye on the largest guaranteed prizepools, the main events (event #55) will kick off on May 21 and cost $109, $1,050 and $10,300.

Back in 2016, the main event produced some of the largest fields of the series with more than 25,000 players combined taking part in the three events.

With at least $15 million more in guaranteed prize money up for grabs across this year’s series, there’s a strong chance even more players will take part in the 2017 main event.