After announcing its Championship of Online Poker in Michigan, PokerStars is now revealing the Bounty Builder series will take place in New Jersey and Pennsylvania starting this weekend. The brand is ramping up poker action in the United States and wasting no time in offering exciting tournament options across the board.
Bounty Builder Series (BBS)
The Bounty Builder Series is back in action in Pennsylvania and New Jersey starting on February 20. The series will run separately of course and take place over a two-week time frame. There will be more than $2 million up for grabs when you combine all the event guarantees.
Pennsylvania is providing more than $1.5 million in total prize money. For the Garden State, the prize pool total comes in at just over $600,000. Each event will take place in a progressive knockout format, where a portion of the buy-in is placed in the prize pool and the rest goes in the player bounty.
Each series will award seven title championship belts to the players who are big event winners. The BBS will take place at the same time as the Winter Online Championships are finishing up as well as the Planet Hollywood Online Circuit series via the WSOP. As an entire market, there is much to explore via the online poker industry.
Comparing the Two Series
When looking at the BBS in PA and NJ, there is much to consider. The Pennsylvania series is much larger, with 75 events instead of 58. While PA has more events, both are offering the seven championships belts.
Both states will offer mixed games, but players will have more variety in Pennsylvania via Badugi and HORSE events. The New Jersey BBS will be limited to just 8-Gamg, Omaha, and Hold’em variants.
Buy-ins start at a low $10, which makes the series affordable for players in both states. For the high roller events, PA will feature a $1,000 buy-in event while NJ will have a lower $750 tournament option. When it comes to Main Events, the Pennsylvania option has a $200 buy-in and a $150,000 guarantee. The New Jersey side will have a $300 buy-in and $75,000 in prize money.
There will also be Mini Mains in both states. The PA Mini has a $50 buy-in and $40,000 in total prize money up for grabs. The NJ option has a lower $30 buy-in and only $10,000 in prize money.
This running of the BBS is the third one for both states in a year’s time. As each series has taken place, it has grown in size, from the number of events to the total prize pool on offer. The Pennsylvania series tends to be larger due to the market, so players there can expect more events and money up for grabs.
The series is also offering a KO Leaderboard in both states. High volume players can compete for $16,000 in prize money per board. Players earn one point each time they knock out a player. The winner of the leaderboard earns $4,000 in cash!
