After announcing the schedule for the New Jersey Championship of Online Poker, poker platform PokerStars has announced the schedule for the Pennsylvania version. Known as the Pennsylvania Championship of Online Poker (PASCOOP), the festival will kick off on April 4th and offer $2 million in total guaranteed prize money across 50 events with two buy-in tier levels. The series will run until April 20th and will offer players a way to compete in a range of events for every budget.
Schedule Details
The PASCOOP is similar to the New Jersey version as buy-ins start from $5 in the low tier and go as high as $50 in the high tier. In Pennsylvania, there are not as many larger buy-in events, so players can buy-in to events much cheaper in PA than they would in New Jersey. take for example a High Roller event on the NJSCOOP schedule has a buy-in of $1,000 while in PA, the same event is half the price at $500.
The main difference between the two schedules is the guaranteed prize money up for grabs in PA. The $2 million, puts the festival at the top of the list, making it the largest online poker series to be hosted by PokerStars in the US.
Players in Pennsylvania will also have a larger number of variants in the tournament events. The PASCOOP is offering more PKOs and turbos than the festival in New Jersey. The opening weekend is also larger with more events on the schedule than in New Jersey.
Earning a Main Event Seat
On April 19th, the PASCOOP will be hosting a Main Event Depositor Freeroll. This event will offer up 50 seats to the Main Event, each worth $300. PA is giving away more than NJ, with 20 additional seats up for grabs.
For the Main Event, the buy-in on the low end is $50 with $50,000 up for grabs. On the high end, players will pay $300 and be competing for $200,000 in prize money.
Players who are eliminated from a PASCOOP even will also be given an entry into the $1,000 All-In Shootout Freeroll. Entry is automatic and players do not have to be online to win a prize. This is a big plus to competing and will be one reason at players take part in multiple events.
The PASCOOP starts in just a few days and all eyes will be on the festival as it takes place in the state for the very first time. Pennsylvania just launched their online poker market last summer and so far has seen great success with major events.
Now that players are stuck at home due to self-quarantining from the coronavirus, the turnout is expected to be even larger than anticipated. Major online events in the state have seen larger turnouts with guarantees smashed by more than a few thousand dollars. The PASCOOP is not going to be any different and we will most likely see record-setting numbers once all the events have finished up.
