The first major poker tournament series on PokerStars MI ended its run yesterday, and by all reasonable measures, it was a resounding success.
Players in the first-ever Michigan Championship of Online Poker won just over $2.2 million across 60 events. Given the site’s decision to increase guarantees throughout MICOOP, it appears the result well-exceeded expectations.
Nearly half of MICOOP events featured boosted guarantees
Following a fast start to MICOOP, PokerStars began upping guarantees just before hitting the series’ midpoint. The increases started Feb. 27-28 with a Double Up Weekend. PokerStars MI doubled the guarantees for all 10 tournaments that Saturday and Sunday.
PokerStars additionally increased guarantees for many of the tournaments during MICOOP’s final week. Most notably, the Main Event for which the guarantee was boosted from $125,000 to $200,000. In the end 26 of the 60 tournaments ran with higher guaranteed prize pools than originally planned.
The increases pushed what had been just over $1 million in total guaranteed prize pools to almost $1.43 million. In the end, only four of the 60 tournaments had overlays, the largest being just over $9,700 in a $200 6-Max Turbo event on Sunday.
In all, there were almost 32,000 total entries in MICOOP, including re-entries and rebuys and add-ons in three rebuy events.
Business at PokerStars Michigan challenging PA and NJ
The $2,208,002.20 awarded to MICOOP players at PokerStars MI well exceeded what the Pennsylvania Championship of Online Poker awarded during the first PACOOP in November-December 2019. Players won almost $1.56 million. It even bested what PACOOP gave out during its second running in October 2020 when players won almost $2.04 million.
The total also easily exceeds what New Jersey players have been winning in the NJCOOP. Last fall, NJCOOP won just over $1.12 million.
Speaking of comparisons, both PokerStars PA and PokerStars NJ ran Bounty Builder Series during the same Feb. 20-Mar. 8 period of MICOOP.
The PokerStars PA Bounty Builder Series awarded just over $2 million in 75 events. Meanwhile, the PokerStars NJ Bounty Builder Series featured 58 events and awarded a little less than $700,000.
It’s worth noting that PokerStars currently enjoys monopolies in both Michigan and Pennsylvania as the only online poker site up and running in those states. Meanwhile PokerStars NJ has competition from multiple other online poker sites.
MICOOP Main draws nearly 1,300 entries, prize pool of $360K
That $300 buy-in MICOOP Main Event ultimately attracted 1,284 total entries, pushing the overall prize pool up to $359,520 and crushing that $200K guarantee. Player “smftt” walked away with the title, earning a first prize of more than $56,000.
The MICOOP Main Event was obviously the largest tournament yet in the short history of PokerStars MI. It also rivals some of the largest events that have taken place on PokerStars PA since its November 2019 launch.
The MICOOP Main Event topped the PACOOP Main Event from last October, a similarly-structured $300 buy-in tournament with re-entries. The 2020 PACOOP Main Event drew just over 1,000 total entries to build a prize pool of a little more than $283,000.
Meanwhile, PokerStars PA has staged three one-off Pennsyl-MANIA tournaments with large guarantees that have built bigger prize pools.
The first Pennsyl-MANIA in May 2020 ranks as the largest tournament in PokerStars PA history with a prize pool of almost $516,000. The second installment had a smaller turnout and prize pool of about $377,000. Meanwhile, the third had a $500,000 guarantee and ended up having an overlay.
Don’t be surprised to see PokerStars MI offer its own version of a Pennsyl-MANIA-style special event. Then we’ll see if PokerStars MI can stage a larger event than PokerStars PA has thus far achieved.
Here’s a look at the fields and prize pools for all 60 events of the first MICOOP.
2021 MICOOP by the numbers
| Event | Buy-in | Guarantee | Entries | Re-Entries | Prize Pool | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1: NLHE [MICOOP Kick Off, Nightly Stars SE] | $100 | $30,000 | 597 | 286 | $81,059.40 | ||
| 2: NLHE [Rebuy] | $20 | $10,000 | 747 | 1,153** | $34,580.00 | ||
| 3: NLHE [8-Max] | $50 | $20,000 | 548 | 229 | $35,353.50 | ||
| 4: NLHE [8-Max, Deepstacks] | $100 | $25,000 | 430 | 226 | $60,220.80 | ||
| 5: NLHE [Progressive KO, Sunday Warm Up SE] | $50 | $10,000 | 430 | 206 | $28,938.00 | ||
| 6: NLHE [Sunday Special SE] | $200 | $40,000 | 289 | 141 | $79,980.00 | ||
| 7: NLHE [Sunday Special Mini] | $25 | $12,500 | 820 | 409 | $27,959.75 | ||
| 8: PLO [8-Max] | $100 | $10,000 | 146 | 72 | $20,012.40 | ||
| 9: NLHE [Second Chance] | $75 | $7,500 | 223 | 76 | $20,406.75 | ||
| 10: NLHE [8-Max, Hyper-Turbo, Sunday Supersonic SE] | $50 | $5,000 | 199 | 51 | $11,750.00 | ||
| 11: NLHE [4-Max] | $100 | $15,000 | 206 | 106 | $28,641.60 | ||
| 12: NLHE [6-Max, Progressive KO, Battle Royale SE] | $50 | $20,000 | 443 | 203 | $29,393.00 | ||
| 13: PLO8 [8-Max] | $50 | $7,500 | 193 | 87 | $12,740.00 | ||
| 14: NLHE [Super Tuesday SE] | $200 | $30,000 | 189 | 109 | $55,428.00 | ||
| 15: NLHE [Super Tuesday Mini] | $30 | $15,000 | 624 | 326 | $25,935.00 | ||
| 16: PL 5-Card Draw [Turbo] | $50 | $3,000 | 81 | 14 | $4,322.50 | ||
| 17: PLO [6-Max] | $100 | $7,500 | 114 | 44 | $14,504.40 | ||
| 18: NLHE [6-Max, High Roller] | $500 | $35,000 | 90 | 41 | $61,570.00 | ||
| 19: NLHE [6-Max] | $50 | $20,000 | 382 | 180 | $25,571.00 | ||
| 20: NLHE [Progressive KO, Thursday Thrill SE] | $200 | $30,000 | 171 | 85 | $47,616.00 | ||
| 21: NLHE [Progressive KO, Thursday Thrill Mini] | $30 | $15,000 | 556 | 276 | $22,713.60 | ||
| 22: 5-Card PLO [6-Max, Turbo] | $30 | $3,000 | 135 | 63 | $5,405.40 | ||
| 23: FLHE [6-Max] | $100 | $5,000 | 71 | 16 | $7,986.60 | ||
| 24: NLHE [Big Antes] | $100 | $7,500 | 230 | 112 | $31,395.60 | ||
| 25: NLHE [6-Max, Turbo] | $150 | $10,000 | 109 | 27 | $18,727.20 | ||
| 26: HORSE [Turbo] | $50 | $6,000 | 194 | 84 | $12,649.00 | ||
| 27: NLHE [Rebuy] | $50 | $20,000 | 394 | 439** | $37,901.50 | ||
| 28: NLHE [Turbo, Saturday Speedway SE] | $100 | $20,000 | 222 | 65 | $26,346.60 | ||
| 29: NLHE [8-Max, Marathon] | $100 | $50,000 | 382 | 193 | $52,785.00 | ||
| 30: NLHE [Sunday Warm Up SE] | $50 | $25,000 | 442 | 160 | $27,391.00 | ||
| 31: NLHE [Sunday Special SE] | $250 | $100,000 | 332 | 129 | $107,413.00 | ||
| 32: NLHE [Sunday Special Mini] | $30 | $30,000 | 768 | 369 | $31,040.10 | ||
| 33: PLO [8-Max, Turbo] | $50 | $10,000 | 156 | 35 | $10,000.00* | ||
| 34: NLHE [6-Max] | $100 | $20,000 | 215 | 104 | $29,284.20 | ||
| 35: NLHE [Hyper-Turbo, Sunday Supersonic SE] | $75 | $20,000 | 168 | 41 | $20,000.00* | ||
| 36: NLHE [4-Max] | $50 | $15,000 | 301 | 151 | $20,566.00 | ||
| 37: NLHE [6-Max, Progressive KO, Battle Royale SE] | $100 | $25,000 | 273 | 141 | $38,005.20 | ||
| 38: NLHE [Super Tuesday SE] | $250 | $50,000 | 171 | 86 | $59,881.00 | ||
| 39: NLHE [Super Tuesday Mini] | $50 | $25,000 | 437 | 207 | $29,302.00 | ||
| 40: Stud Hi-Lo | $50 | $5,000 | 112 | 22 | $6,097.00 | ||
| 41: PLO [6-Max, High Roller] | $250 | $20,000 | 78 | 30 | $25,164.00 | ||
| 42: PLO [6-Max] | $30 | $5,000 | 255 | 130 | $10,510.50 | ||
| 43: NLHE [6-Max, Turbo] | $100 | $20,000 | 215 | 107 | $29,559.60 | ||
| 44: NLHE [Progressive KO, Thursday Thrill SE] | $250 | $50,000 | 178 | 98 | $64,308.00 | ||
| 45: NLHE [Progressive KO, Thursday Thrill Mini] | $50 | $25,000 | 444 | 190 | $28,847.00 | ||
| 46: NLHE [Turbo] | $20 | $15,000 | 538 | 235 | $15,000.00* | ||
| 47: NLHE [6-Max, Rebuy] | $10 | $15,000 | 760 | 1,565** | $21,157.50 | ||
| 48: NLHE | $75 | $15,000 | 381 | 177 | $38,083.50 | ||
| 49: NLHE [6-Max, Turbo] | $20 | $5,000 | 408 | 190 | $10,883.60 | ||
| 50: 8-Game | $50 | $10,000 | 199 | 77 | $12,558.00 | ||
| 51: NLHE [6-Max, Turbo, Zoom] | $50 | $15,000 | 331 | 189 | $23,660.00 | ||
| 52: NLHE [Turbo, Saturday Speedway SE] | $50 | $10,000 | 291 | 83 | $17,017.00 | ||
| 53: NLHE [8-Max, Marathon] | $50 | $35,000 | 533 | 238 | $35,080.50 | ||
| 54: NLHE [Progressive KO] | $100 | $40,000 | 336 | 124 | $42,228.00 | ||
| 55: NLHE [Main Event] | $300 | $200,000 | 882 | 402 | $359,520.00 | ||
| 56: NLHE [Main Event Mini] | $50 | $50,000 | 813 | 388 | $54,645.50 | ||
| 57: NLHE [6-Max, Turbo] | $200 | $30,000 | 84 | 25 | $30,000.00* | ||
| 58: NLHE [Hyper-Turbo, Sunday Supersonic SE] | $100 | $15,000 | 186 | 61 | $23,465.00 | ||
| 59: NLHE [Nightly Stars SE] | $100 | $30,000 | 358 | 182 | $49,572.00 | ||
| 60: NLHE [Heads-Up, Turbo, Progressive KO, Zoom] | $20 | $10,000 | 484 | 388 | $15,870.40 | ||
| TOTALS | $1,429,500 | 20,344 | 11,643 | $2,208,002.20 | |||
*Events with overlays: Event No. 33 — $1,309.05; Event No. 35 — $5,265.50; Event No. 46 — $931.40; Event No. 57 — $9,726.00; **total rebuys and add-ons; bold = increased guarantees
