$50 Million Guaranteed Winter Series Set to Hit PokerStars

Matthew Pitt
Senior Editor
3 min read
PokerStars Winter Series

PokerStars’ popular Winter Series returns from Christmas Day and sees a bustling schedule of 82 events take place over three weeks. Don’t overindulge in turkey, mince pies, and the booze between December 25 and January 13 because you’re going to need your wits about you if you want to win a slice of the $50 million worth of guarantees on offer.

Following in the footsteps of PokerStars’ other major festivals, the events on the Winter Series schedule are split into three tiers based on their buy-in. You’ll find Low, Medium, and High tiers featuring a wide variety of formats and variants with buy-ins starting at only $5.50 and increasing to $10,300. There are 242 tournaments across those 82 events for you to get your teeth into.

Winter Series Highlights

It’s hard to pluck out some highlights from the Winter Series schedule because it looks so fantastic. That said, there are some tournaments that stand out from the crowd.

Make sure you have December 29 free because this is the date the Winter Series edition of the Sunday Million takes place. Its buy-in reverts to $215 from $109, but PokerStars is boosting the guarantee to an incredible $3 million!

There is also a trio of Main Events scheduled for January 13 that have combined guaranteed prize pools of $4.5 million. Fans of Phased tournaments are also catered for with a $109 buy-in $2.5 million guaranteed affair already up and running.

One area that PokerStars excels in when it comes to these festivals is making all events accessible to as many players as possible through satellites.

Spin & Go players can play in Winter Series special edition games that cost $4 or $40 to enter. These pay out a mixture of cash and Winter Series tickets, including $5,200 Main Event entries.

There’s also $20,000 worth of prizes up for grabs in a Spin & Go satellite leaderboard.

Traditionalists can play standard satellites of they wish. Satellites for the $5,200 Winter Series Main Event start at only $2.2 while qualification into the $3 million Sunday Million is possible for less than a dollar. Merry Christmas!

Popular PokerStars streamer Tom "Pleb_Method" Hayward is keen for the Winter Series to shuffle up and deal and will be streaming his play via his Twitch channel.

“I'm going to play as many of the micro to low Winter Series tourneys as possible. The guarantees are solid and there will be lots of people playing very festively. I always feel like the game is more friendly during the holiday season, people are with their loved ones, the vibe is more relaxed, and you would be surprised how much that translates into the virtual felt.

“I'm a big fan of the variety of tournaments being held, and I'm a big fan of PKOs and turbo structures so it’s great to see that there are options like that, especially when some of us might be pressed for time. As always, I'm just going to be on the hunt for life-changing money at what is a very affordable price. That's what gets me about series like this, it’s the same with WCOOP and SCOOP, you don't have to put up huge chunks to come out the other side with some serious prizes."

PokerStars Southern Europe Festival

Those of you reading this who are located in France, Spain, or Portugal and are unable to compete in Winter Series event need not worry because the €15 million guaranteed PokerStars Southern Europe Series runs December 25 to January 16.

This action-packed festival has 260 tournaments with buy-ins of €10 to €250. Some of the Southern Europe Festival highlights including a €125,000 guaranteed Xmas Classico on Christmas Day that only costs €10 to enter, and a massive €1 million guaranteed Main Event. Oh, and don’t forget the €400,000 guaranteed €250 buy-in Winter Special on December 29 as that’s going to be great fun.

PokerStars Italy Festival

Our Italian poker players are also well-catered for with its own Winter Series running until January 13. At least €5 million will be paid out by the time the 114th tournament crowns its champion.

Italy’s buy-ins range from €5 to €250, with the €250 buy-in Main Event on January 12 featuring a huge €500,000 guaranteed prize pool.

Stay tuned to PokerNews throughout this trio of Winter Series festivals as we bring you all the latest news and big wins from around the world.



The Stars Group is a majority shareholder in iBus Media

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Matthew Pitt
Senior Editor

Matthew Pitt hails from Leeds, West Yorkshire, in the United Kingdom, and has worked in the poker industry since 2008, and worked for PokerNews since 2010. In September 2010, he became the editor of PokerNews. Matthew stepped away from live reporting duties in 2015, and now concentrates on his role of Senior Editor for the PokerNews.

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