PokerStars Celebrates Huge Start To MICOOP With Doubled Guarantees

The first-ever PokerStars Michigan Championship of Online Poker (MICOOP) started last Saturday. Following a week’s worth of big turnouts and routinely-eclipsed guarantees, PokerStars chose to up the ante this weekend.

This afternoon PokerStars MI announced it would be doubling the guarantees for all 10 events scheduled for this weekend, Feb. 27-28.

Appropriately, PokerStars MI has dubbed the last-minute promotion Double Up Weekend.

Click here to start playing at PokerStars Michigan today and get $30 on a $20 deposit. 

MICOOP boosted guarantees for Saturday and Sunday

The newly doubled guarantees include three Saturday events and seven Sunday events. On Saturday, Feb. 27, the events and new guarantees are:

• 6 p.m., $50 H.O.R.S.E. (Turbo) — guarantee was $3K, now $6K
• 7 p.m., $50 NLHE (Rebuy) — guarantee was $10K, now $20K
• 8 p.m., $100 NLHE (Turbo, Saturday Speedway SE) — guarantee was $10K, now $20K

The same goes for the seven events scheduled for Sunday, Feb. 28:

• 2 p.m., $100 NLHE (8-Max, Marathon) — guarantee was $25K, now $50K
• 4 p.m., $50 NLHE (Sunday Warm-Up SE) — guarantee was $12.5K, now $25K
• 5 p.m., $250 NLHE (Sunday Special SE) — guarantee was $50K, now $100K
• 5:30 p.m., $30 NLHE (Sunday Special Mini) — guarantee was $15K, now $30K
• 7 p.m., $50 PLO (8-Max, Turbo) — guarantee was $5K, now $10K
• 8 p.m., $100 NLHE (6-Max) — guarantee was $10K, now $20K
• 10 p.m., $75 NLHE (Hyper-Turbo, Sunday Supersonic SE) — guarantee was $10K, now $20K

“The response in Michigan to our first Championship of Online Poker has been wonderful so we wanted to celebrate with our players,” said Rebecca McAdam Willetts, PokerStars associate director and group public relations.

“The poker community in Michigan has spoken and we are thrilled to double the value on offer to our players.”

PokerStars MI seeing big fields in first six days of MICOOP

The raising of guarantees wasn’t entirely unexpected, given the big fields and prize pools over the tournament’s first six days.

All 22 events thus far have bested their guarantees. PokerStars Michigan likely set those guarantees at modest levels given that the site launched less than a month ago. In some cases, the prize pools have doubled or even tripled the guarantees.

Originally the 60-event series featured guarantees adding up to a little over $1 million. So far through 22 events, more than $733,000 has been awarded.

The boosting of guarantees mid-series recalls the first-ever PACOOP shortly after the launch of the PokerStars Pennsylvania site.

Initially, the first PACOOP featured 50 events with $1 million in guarantees. Later events saw guarantees boosted, upping the total to $1.225 million, with prize pools ultimately totaling just over $1.55 million.

The MICOOP runs through March 8. Click here for a look at the full MICOOP schedule.