Last night, PokerStars completed its inaugural Summer Stacks Festival. The 17-day, 100-event series ran in PokerStars’ three US markets – New Jersey, Michigan, and Pennsylvania – and managed to draw hordes of players and prizes from each state.
Contrary to many similar series, the Summer Stacks catered to the more casual player, offering quicker events and smaller buy-ins. Not even the main events exceeded a $100 price tag.
Still, the series brought in some of PokerStars’ best and brightest, who battled for their share of the total prize pool. And now, after more than two weeks of hitting that digital felt, the main events have concluded and crowned their respective champions.
New Jersey
New Jersey is the smallest US market that PokerStars operates in. As such, the PokerStars NJ Summer Stacks guarantees were smaller than that of Michigan and Pennsylvania. Nonetheless, the 100 events of the NJ series sported a total guaranteed prize of $500,000, which inspired more than 15,000 total entries.
Despite the half-million in prizes, PokerStars NJ was unable to draw enough players to meet its guarantees many times throughout the series. This means the site had to put in extra money to meet their minimums in the form of an overlay, which while not great for PokerStars, wasn’t too bad for the players.
In the final weekend of New Jersey’s Summer Stacks series, there was a shortfall of just over $6,000 – $130,000 brought in compared to $136,000 in guarantees – making New Jersey the only market to miss its goal.
Still, New Jersey started the weekend off in fashion, with a few tournaments scorching their guarantees by over 50%. Also, the shortfall on the main event’s $50,000 guarantee was a mere 1%; $49,480 was collected in entry fees from 539 entrants.
Speaking of the $100 Main Event, PokerStars NJ player “slipinjimy” bested 538 other players to win the tournament and a cool $8,840. “Slipinjimy” also triumphed in an earlier tournament in the series – putting the player on a shortlist of those who won multiple events.
Michigan
PokerStars Michigan’s Summer Stacks series was a big success. Though the site only surpassed its guarantees on the final weekend, it covered the shortfall with its fees for the first two weekends.
Michigan also managed to crush New Jersey’s numbers, with nearly 28,000 total entries and $1.1 million in prizes. The site’s Summer Stacks main event also came in 12% over its $100,000 guarantee.
The main event, which drew 1,224 entrants, was captured by “CheckUrPrivlege”, who took home $17,627 for the top prize. While this was the only Summer Stacks win for “CheckUrPrivlege”, Michigan did have several players to win multiple events, including vlogger “NaigoPA”.
Pennsylvania
Out of PokerStars’ three U.S. markets, Pennsylvania was undoubtedly the most successful. The Keystone state drew a whopping 35,000 entries and a total prize pool of almost $1.3 million.
In addition, PokerStars PA was the only state to successfully hit its guarantees on all three weekends of the series. On the final weekend, the site eclipsed its goal by more than 25% – capping a fantastic festival, which only missed the mark in four events.
Pennsylvania’s Summer Stacks main event was also best in show. Drawing 1443 entrants, the tournament beat its $100,000 guarantee by over $32,000. The $100 buy-in Main Event, and its $20,237 top prize, was taken down by PokerStars PA player “Ambiter”.
All in all, the series was a major success for PokerStars (and, of course, the champions).
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