When it comes to online poker, there is no day like Sunday. Pennsylvania online poker is no exception. The debut of PokerStars brought along with it a slate of multi-table tournaments most poker fans refer to as the Sunday Majors.
Playin Pennsylvania took a closer look at the Sunday Majors offered on PA PokerStars. In particular, we wanted to see how they measured up to the Sunday MTT schedule at PokerStars NJ. We’ll also look back on what was NJ PokerStars offered when it first launched.
What tournaments are considered Sunday Majors?
The Sunday Majors at PokerStars PA consist of:
- Sunday Warm-Up
- Sunday Storm
- Sunday Special
- Sunday High Roller
- Sunday Supersonic
Simply open the PokerStars client and tab over to Tourney. The Sunday Majors all have the name Sunday listed in the name field.
In addition, PA PokerStars released their daily tournament schedule. Buy-ins range from as little as $5 to $100.
PA PokerStars reigns supreme on tournament guarantees
Thus far, PA PokerStars’ guarantees are larger than New Jersey’s current guarantees. More importantly? The PA guarantees are bigger for similar or even smaller buy-in price points.
For example, the Sunday Warm-Up in PA requires a buy-in of $30 and comes with a $7,500 guarantee. In New Jersey, the same tournament now requires a more expensive $50 buy-in but offers only a $4,000 guarantee.
We speculate that tournament guarantees are bigger mainly because the population of PA is much greater than NJ. This chart provided by Google compares the populations of the two states:
Comparing Sunday Majors
| Tournament Name | PA PokerStars | Current NJ PokerStars | NJ PokerStars Launch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sunday Warm-Up | $30 buy-in, $7,500 GTD | $50 buy-in, $4,000 GTD | $50 buy-in, $10,000 GTD |
| Sunday Storm | $10 buy-in, $5,000 GTD | $10 buy-in, $3,500 GTD | $10 buy-in, $5,000 GTD |
| Sunday Special | $100 buy-in, $40,000 GTD | $200 buy-in, $25,000 GTD | $200 buy-in, $50,000 GTD |
| Sunday High Roller | $250 buy-in, $10,000 GTD | $500 buy-in, $8,000 GTD | $500 buy-in, $15,000 GTD |
| Sunday Supersonic | $50 buy-in, $5,000 GTD | $75 buy-in, $4,000 GTD | $75 buy-in, $5,000 GTD |
To sum up, PA PokerStars prize pool guarantees for Sunday Majors combine for $67,500 with $440 in total entry fees (excluding re-entries). The current NJ PokerStars Sunday Majors prize pools guarantee a total of $44,500 with buy-ins totaling $835 (again, assuming no re-entries).
At launch, NJ PokerStars had the same $835 in total entry fees for Sunday Majors, but the guarantees were much higher. They amounted to around $85,000 total.
Assuming that the player pool decreases after the initial excitement and newness of online poker wears off, the guarantees in PA may decrease down the road. If it follows the trend set in New Jersey, buy-ins would remain as they are at their lower price points.
However, given the enthusiasm for online poker in Pennsylvania so far, the likelihood the Sunday tournaments grow in popularity seems like the more likely result.
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