Where To Play Micro Stakes Tournaments: PokerStars

A Brief History of PokerStars

PokerStars was founded in 2001 at the very start of online poker’s inception. PokerStars is owned by international gambling conglomerate, Flutter, who own Betfair, FanDuel, PaddyPower, and Skybet, which are popular sports book and online casino game websites. PokerStars also features a sports book and online casino games, like slots, baccart, roulette, blackjack and more. For many, PokerStars is where players young and old, established and up and coming, played their first hands of poker online, and for that reason, as well as a wide range of variants, “Stars” remains popular today. PokerStars, along with Full Tilt, were key components in the online boom in the 2000’s, as they had the biggest games with the biggest players on their sites.

Like GG, PokerStars have had a roster of professionals and ambassadors representing their brand over the course of its history. Now with GG, Daniel “KidPoker” Negreanu, once batted for team PokerStars, until as recently as 2019. Players like Finnish phenom Patrik Antonius, the elusive Viktor “Isildur1” Blom, and “The Great Dane”, Gus Hansen, all represented the Red Spade, and these poker superstars helped grow the brand’s appeal. The result saw an influx of players take to the virtual felts on PokerStars, all wanting to mix it with the best at the highest stakes. PokerStars also signed deals with prominent athletes, such as Olympic 100m and 200m World Record holder Usain Bolt, two of Brazil’s greatest ever footballers Ronaldo “R9” Nazario and Neymar Jr, the latter of which plays consistently on Stars in the biggest tournaments available. In the modern age, Stars have diversified their roster to include popular streamers Benjamin Spragg aka Spraggy, Lex Veldhuis and Fintan “Easywithaces” Hand, as well as British poker legend Barny Boatman, and arguably one of the best poker players of all time, Jason Koon.

The Selection

For micro-stakes players, the selection of games to choose from are varied in buy-in, structure, format, and variant. In regards to No Limit Hold’em, there are a range of Bounty Builder Tournaments and vanilla tournaments around the $5.50 mark and under. The $5.50 Mini Tortoise, which starts at 1.15 p.m. GMT, offers a $3,000 guarantee and a generous structure, with levels starting at 10-minutes apiece and 2 hours and 50 minutes of late registration. When registration closes, levels increase to 12 minutes in duration. This is a versatile tournament and can be played comfortably from the beginning, middle or with a max late reg. In the Bounty Hunter streets, there is a $2.20 $2,000 GTD that starts at 1.30 p.m. GMT, which has 8 minute long levels and 1 hour and 45 minutes of late registration. The same parameters apply to the $1.10 $1,000 GTD at 2.30 p.m., the $3.30 $4,000 GTD at 3.30 p.m. The Bounty Hunters run also in the evenings, with $5.50 being the largest at 9.30 p.m., and has a $5,000 GTD. The jewel in PokerStars micro-stakes crown has to be the $5.50 Micro Bounty Builder HR, which usually offers a GTD around $15,000. This fluctuates depending on what day of the week it is, but at the weekend, this $5.50 tournament guarantees a total prize pool of $20,000, a meaty proposition given the small buy-in.

PokerStars also hosts a yearly Micro Millions series for its low-stakes players, and this low buy-in schedule offers bumper prize pools across a range of different poker variants. This year, the event ran from August 17 – 31, and saw $3,500,000 in total guaranteed prize pools be distributed to the low-stakes grinders. There were 208 unique events ranging from $1.10-$22, meaning there was truly something for every budget during the series. PokerStars also offers a wide range of satellites to a multitude of different buy-in tournaments, with satellites to the $11 tournaments starting at $1.10, and they represent great value for those looking to move up the stakes without the risk of a full buy-in.

Sit and Goes

One thing that separates PokerStars from GG is its range of Sit and Go tournaments that are available on demand. The buy-ins start at 25 cents, and there are vanilla sit and goes, bounties, and even mystery bounty sit and goes, the latter of which start at $5.50 and offer a $1,000 GTD prize pool per tournament. Field sizes range from six-max to a capped at 45 runner sit and goes and are well worth playing if on a reduced bankroll, or want to play a tournament but are running short on time.

Players

The player pool is considerably smaller than that of GG, and in this poker writers opinion, it is a more solid one generally. Despite not being as popular in the online poker world in terms of concurrent players, PokerStars still has a loyal player base across all stakes, and the best of the best still play their regularly today, as well as on GG.

Other Games

Another big plus for PokerStars is its host of incredibly diverse selection of poker variants. Outside of No Limit Hold’em, there is PLO 4, 5 and 6 card available, as well as Hi-Lo tournaments in each variant. For the old schoolers out there, there are Stud and Stud 8 tournaments, as well as Razz, H.O.R.S.E. and 8-Game. Additionally, there are draw games in the form of 5-Card Draw, 2-7 Single Draw and 2-7 Triple Draw. The Mixed Game tournaments come with small guarantees and field sizes, but are fairly soft and offer a good introduction to players looking to dip their toes in to the Mixed Game pool. There are not many, if any sites, that have this sort of range of variants and active players online, making it a go to place for Mixed Game players around the world.

What’s Next?

Stay tuned to Pokerlistings.com for more news, guides and general content on all things poker. This poker writer will be investigating some more sites in the online poker world to bring you a rundown on what sites are offering which games.

That’s all for now, folks. Good luck at the tables. Until next time.