Less than two weeks after PokerStars, in conjunction with Mount Airy Casino, became the first online poker room to go live in Pennsylvania, the site has already announced a major internet poker series. On Friday, Fox Bet and PokerStars released the schedule for the inaugural Pennsylvania Championship of Online Poker (PACOOP), another poker series in the long tradition of PokerStars’ “COOPs.”
50 tourneys, $1 million bucks
There will be 50 events in the PACOOP with $1 million in guaranteed prize pools. The entire series will run November 30 through December 16. Buy-ins range from $30 to $750. All in all, PACOOP mimics very closely the New Jersey Championship of Online Poker, with a schedule consisting of mostly No-Limit Hold’em games, but with much variety within that game type.
The PACOOP Main Event will run December 15th to December 16th and has a buy-in of $300 and a guaranteed prize pool of $100,000.
“The Championship of Online Poker, or COOP, is one of our most prestigious events and we’re proud to give Pennsylvania its own,” said Matt Primeaux, President of FOX Bet, in a press release. “Players in PA have already shown their excitement for PokerStars so we took things to the next level with a $1 million series guarantee and plenty of ways to get in on the action.”
It’s PokerStars, so freerolls for seats
There does not seem to be a leader board for PACOOP, but there are a couple promos being offered to give customers a chance to enter PACOOP tournaments on the cheap. Players who get knocked out of a PACOOP event before the money will be entered into a daily Second Chance Freeroll. Each of these Second Chance Freerolls will award $1,250 in satellite tickets and entries into PACOOP events.
Additionally, anyone who deposits $50 with PokerStars Pennsylvania by 2:00pm on December 15th will be entered into a PACOOP $7,500 Main Event Depositor Freeroll. The top 25 finishers in said freeroll will win an entry into the PACOOP Main Event.
“I’m thrilled to see PokerStars’ COOP coming to Pennsylvania this December, giving PA players the chance to play in a world-renowned poker series and vie for titles,” said Pennsylvanian and PokerStars Ambassador Jennifer Shahade. “Having online poker in Pennsylvania has been amazing so far. I felt chills playing my very first Sunday session, and there was such a buzz at the tables. I can’t wait to see everyone battling to be the first PokerStars PA champion.”
PokerStars Pennsylvania already ranks among the top 20 online poker rooms/networks in terms of cash game traffic, according to PokerScout. With a seven-day average of 400 cash game players, it ranks just behind PokerStars Europe.
To play on PokerStars Pennsylvania and, in turn, the PACOOP, players must be located within state borders, though they need not be residents of the state. Right now, Pennsylvania online poker is just intrastate, meaning that the only players on Pennsylvania poker sites will be people in the state. It is expected that Pennsylvania will join an interstate poker network with New Jersey, Delaware, and Nevada at some point, but that will likely not happen for quite some time.
