Hungry Like The Wolverine: PokerStars MICOOP Crosses Halfway Mark, $1.14M Awarded

Written By Martin Harris on March 1, 2021
pokerstars micoop

The first Michigan Championship of Online Poker has reached the midway point at PokerStars MI. Judging by the first week of MICOOP, it’s safe to say Michigan poker players were hungry to play an online tournament series on the first site to launch in Michigan.

The series has been a hit so far, with consistently big turnouts and large prize pools in all events.

Through 35 tournaments, players have won just over $1.147 million. In other words, the total prize pools have already overshot the $1 million in guarantees of the original 60-event MICOOP schedule.

Visit PokerStars Michigan and sign up to join the MICOOP.

Michigan > Pennsylvania: MICOOP crushing pace for first PACOOP

That total amount of guarantees for MICOOP events has increased since the original schedule was set. That’s because over the weekend PokerStars MI boosted guarantees in all of the Saturday and Sunday events (more on that below).

So far there have been more than 15,800 total entries in the 35 events (counting re-entries), plus nearly 1,600 rebuys and add-ons in two rebuy events.

The largest prize pool to this point came yesterday in the $250 buy-in Sunday Special (Event #31). The 461 total entries created a prize pool of more than $107,000 for that event. That topped the previous high prize pool of just over $81,000 in the $100 Kickoff (Event #1).

The first MICOOP is on pace to perform much better than the first Pennsylvania Championship on Online Poker staged in late 2019 shortly after PokerStars PA launched.

The first PACOOP was a 50-event series in which players won just over $1.55 million.

Michigan players come out in droves for ‘Double Up Weekend’

Having easily bested all guarantees through the first 22 events (and doing so as well in the three Friday events), PokerStars Michigan announced late last week the doubling of guarantees in all 10 events on Saturday and Sunday.

How did the last-minute “Double Up Weekend” go? Quite well, all things considered.

Eight of the 10 weekend events attracted big enough fields to produce prize pools greater than the newly doubled guarantee. In one case (Event #26), the prize pool ($12,649) ended up doubling the doubled guarantee ($6,000).

Two of the later events on Sunday night did end up with overlays. The $50 PLO (Event #33) had an overlay of just over $1,300, while the $75 NLHE Sunday Supersonic (Event #35) had an overlay of a little more than $5,200.

PokerStars has yet to adjust any remaining guarantees on the tourney schedule, although that remains a possibility. On Sunday comes the two-day, $300 buy-in Main Event currently sporting a $125,000 guarantee.

Here’s a look at the turnouts and prize pools for all MICOOP events thus far.

2021 MICOOP by the numbers (through Event #35)

EventBuy-inGuaranteeEntriesRe-EntriesPrize Pool
1: NLHE [MICOOP Kick Off, Nightly Stars SE]$100$30,000 597286$81,059.40
2: NLHE [Rebuy]$20$10,000 7471,153**$34,580.00
3: NLHE [8-Max]$50$20,000 548229$35,353.50
4: NLHE [8-Max, Deepstacks]$100$25,000 430226$60,220.80
5: NLHE [Progressive KO, Sunday Warm Up SE]$50$10,000 430206$28,938.00
6: NLHE [Sunday Special SE]$200$40,000 289141$79,980.00
7: NLHE [Sunday Special Mini]$25$12,500 820409$27,959.75
8: PLO [8-Max]$100$10,000 14672$20,012.40
9: NLHE [Second Chance]$75$7,500 22376$20,406.75
10: NLHE [8-Max, Hyper-Turbo, Sunday Supersonic SE]$50$5,000 19951$11,750.00
11: NLHE [4-Max]$100$15,000 206106$28,641.60
12: NLHE [6-Max, Progressive KO, Battle Royale SE]$50$20,000 443203$29,393.00
13: PLO8 [8-Max]$50$7,500 19387$12,740.00
14: NLHE [Super Tuesday SE]$200$30,000 189109$55,428.00
15: NLHE [Super Tuesday Mini]$30$15,000 624326$25,935.00
16: PL 5-Card Draw [Turbo]$50$3,000 8114$4,322.50
17: PLO [6-Max]$100$7,500 11444$14,504.40
18: NLHE [6-Max, High Roller]$500$35,000 9041$61,570.00
19: NLHE [6-Max]$50$20,000 382180$25,571.00
20: NLHE [Progressive KO, Thursday Thrill SE]$200$30,000 17185$47,616.00
21: NLHE [Progressive KO, Thursday Thrill Mini]$30$15,000 556276$22,713.60
22: 5-Card PLO [6-Max, Turbo]$30$3,000 13563$5,405.40
23: FLHE [6-Max]$100$5,000 7116$7,986.60
24: NLHE [Big Antes]$100$7,500 230112$31,395.60
25: NLHE [6-Max, Turbo]$150$10,00010927$18,727.20
26: HORSE [Turbo]$50$6,000 19484$12,649.00
27: NLHE [Rebuy]$50$20,000 394439**$37,901.50
28: NLHE [Turbo, Saturday Speedway SE]$100$20,000 22265$26,346.60
29: NLHE [8-Max, Marathon]$100$50,000 382193$52,785.00
30: NLHE [Sunday Warm Up SE]$50$25,000 442160$27,391.00
31: NLHE [Sunday Special SE]$250$100,000 332129$107,413.00
32: NLHE [Sunday Special Mini]$30$30,000 768369$31,040.10
33: PLO [8-Max, Turbo]$50$10,000 15635$10,000*
34: NLHE [6-Max]$100$20,000 215104$29,284.20
35: NLHE [Hyper-Turbo, Sunday Supersonic SE]$75$20,000 16841$20,000*

*Events with overlays: Event No. 33 — $1,309.05; Event No. 35 — $5,265.50; **total rebuys and add-ons; bold = doubled guarantees

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Martin Harris

Martin Harris is a writer and teacher who has reported on poker, online gambling, and sports betting since the mid-2000s. Once a full-time academic (Ph.D., English), he currently teaches part-time in the American Studies program at UNC Charlotte. In 2019, his book Poker & Pop Culture was published by D&B Books.

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