888poker was among the first online poker operators to roll out the hot new Mystery Bounty format. The format that randomizes the bounty totals including some truly massive bounties compared to buy-in has quickly become the fastest-growing form of poker both live and online.

There is little surprise what is driving the recent success of the hottest new format in poker. The Mystery Bounty format burst onto the scene in 2022 and quickly took the poker world by storm, in no small part because of the chance to win massive bounties compared to the buy-in.

With poker players constantly on the hunt for value and big prizes, the new format caught on like wildfire. It debuted in the live poker space and was met with huge excitement from the player base, making it a certainty the format would move into the online space as well.

It was 888poker who stepped up to the plate in a big way. Among the first four operators to debut the format online, the operator not only debuted the format but also spread it across its schedule. While the format initially debuted as a $109 game, by early 2023 there are multiple Mystery games throughout the day with prices to fit nearly all players.

While other operators, like rival GGPoker, have dabbled in the Mystery format, 888poker went all-in with the new format, eventually spreading the game across its schedule to include games in basically every bankroll category.

What’s the Mystery?

It’s no mystery what has made the format so popular. A variation on the more common knockout (KO) game, the Mystery Bounty does something a little different with the bounty pool. In a regular KO game, every player has a certain price on their head from the very first hand, and whenever a player busts, the winner gets the bounty amount directly in their pocket.

That was the first iteration of bounty games, but a new variant quickly emerged, called progressive knockout games (PKO). In a PKO, the bounties still start from the first hand, but players only get a portion of a busted player’s bounty, with the remaining money added to their own price.

The latest craze is yet another variation on the KO game. In this case, there is some significant divergence from the original format, not least because bounties never kick in on the first hand in the Mystery Bounty format.

While a portion of the buy-in is still reserved for bounties, players can’t win those bounties until later in the game. The format varies with implementation, but common forms include bounties kicking in when late registration ends, or when players get into the money. In the case of 888poker Mystery Bounty games, players play 16 levels with no bounties in play and the envelopes come out at the start of Level 17.

Once bounties are in play, there are some truly huge prizes to be won in this format, and that is what fuels the excitement. The bounty pool in the Mystery games is divided up into a number of big bounties” that can be as big as 150 times the buy-in or more. Once the big bounties are calculated – the specific structure of the big bounties varies by event but typically, 50% of the bounty pool is reserved for big bounties. The rest of the bounty pool gets divided into “average bounties” which are generally at least the size of the buy-in.

888poker Loves the Mystery

Players on 888poker responded very positively to the first trial games of the format. In the earliest trial in Sep 2022, the $109 game saw nearly 1,500 entries, almost doubling its $100k guarantee, and was generally met with excitement from all, including the operator’s team of ambassadors.

The huge response to that opening trial game virtually guaranteed the format would roll out in a wider way on 888poker, and that’s exactly what happened. By the end of 2022, there were Mystery Bounty games in all the bankroll categories on the site with the current daily schedule ranging from $1 to $109.

As an example of the kind of bounties that can be won, the $1 game ($1,500 guaranteed) features a big bounty of $150 with 69 big bounties starting at $2.20. The daily $109 game ($12k guaranteed), on the other hand, has $1,200 for the biggest bounty prize and 12 total big bounties starting at $180.

See below for a look at the daily and weekly Mystery Bounty games on 888poker. There’s no mystery what it is that fuels the excitement, and 888poker is the place to take your shot at drawing an envelop worth as much as $10k.

888poker Mystery Bounty Schedule

Time	Buy-In	GTD	Biggest Big Bounty	Smallest Big Bounty	Total Big Bounties
11:00	$1.00	$1,500	$150	$2.25	69
14:00	$2.20	$2,000	$200	$3.00	69
12:00	$5.50	$5,000	$500	$7.50	69
11:15	$8.80	$5,000	$500	$15.00	49
18:00	$8.80	$1,500	$150	$22.50	12
10:00	$11.00	$10,000	$1,000	$14.00	104
23:00	$11.00	$1,200	$120	$18.00	12
15:30	$16.50	$2,500	$250	$37.50	12
12:00	$22.00	$12,000	$1,200	$36.00	49
16:30	$33.00	$2,500	$150	$37.50	12
04:00	$33.00	$3,000	$300	$45.00	12
11:30	$55.00	$15,000	$1,500	$75.00	33
14:15	$55.00	$5,000	$500	$75.00	12
12:30	$109.00	$12,000	$1,200	$180.00	12
			Sunday Mystery Bounty
12:00	$109.00	$100,000	$10,000	$140.00	104

The schedule for this year’s edition of the biggest poker tournament series on the planet was released last week, and between the online and live games announced there will be at least 123 chances for players to put a bracelet on their wrist.

Once again, bracelet season is approaching as the World Series of Poker (WSOP) has recently released the schedule for the big summer series and this year there will be almost 100 bracelets up for grabs on the live felt in Vegas. In addition to the live bracelets there will be almost 30 bracelets handed out in various US online bracelet series also announced.

Once again, poker players are booking their flights and rooms, and making plans to descend on Vegas for the biggest poker party on earth with the release of this year’s WSOP schedule. The live festival will feature 95 events at Horseshoe Las Vegas and Paris Las Vegas and the announcement also laid out 28 online bracelet games in various US markets.

To date, there has been no word about international online bracelets – all of the online bracelets announced in this recent release are in the NJ/NV, PA, or MI jurisdictions in the US, and will not include international players. It’s worth noting that players on the ground in Vegas for the festival will be able to compete in WSOP NV bracelet events while they are physically in Nevada, but there are also usually bracelet series announced for international markets through online partner GGPoker.

When the dust settles and all the bracelet series from markets like WSOP Ontario and the larger international crowd are accounted for, it is likely the 2023 bracelet total will approach 200. That continues a trend in recent years as the number of bracelets awarded has ballooned in the era of online poker.

A Usual Start

As has become traditional, the series kicks off on May 30 with the Casino Employees Event. The $500 game has kicked off the series for a number of years, giving industry members an early shot at a bracelet before they head off to respective reporting, directing, and dealing duties for the rest of the Series.

While that is a typical start to the series, there is also something new in the early going. The 3^rd scheduled event is a $1,000 Mystery Bounty game, the hottest new format in poker. The WSOP debuted the Mystery format in last year’s Series, but for this year, the bounty barrel will be headlining the early days.

Among the other early feature games are Event #2: High Roller for $25k, the Tournament of Champions freeroll (which typically runs at the end of the series and is open to all ring and bracelet winners of the previous season), and the $1,500 Dealer’s Choice.

Championship Games

Among the biggest games on the schedule every year are the Championship Games. Most of the Championships are $10k buy-ins representing the elite games in their various disciplines. There are a couple of Championships that are a bit bigger, however – The Heads Up Championship costs $25k to get into while the elite Poker Players Championship is a $50k event that is widely seen as overall poker Championship of the world.

There are also a couple of cheaper shots at a Championship bracelet. For women and seniors, the Championship cost will be just $1,000 while the Deepstack Championship is just $600. Interestingly, the Ladies event on Jun 29 actually has an official buy-in of $10k but women are discounted to $1,000 on entry to “discourage” men from entering the event. Yet the Seniors event, which also has restricted entry, requires no such modification to keep the kids away from the adult’s table.

2023 WSOP Championship Events

Date	Day	Time	EV#	Event Name	Buy-In
Jun 2	FRI	12PM	8	Heads Up No-Limit Hold’em Championship – (64 player max) (3 day event)	$25,000
Jun 3	SAT	2PM	10	Dealers Choice 6-Handed Championship (3 day event)	$10,000
Jun 5	MON	2PM	14	Seven Card Stud Championship (3 day event)	$10,000
Jun 8	THU	2PM	22	Limit Hold’em Championship (8-Handed) (3 day event)	$10,000
Jun 10	SAT	2PM	25	Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship (8-Handed) (4 day event)	$10,000
Jun 13	TUE	2PM	33	Razz Championship (3 day event)	$10,000
Jun 15	THU	2PM	38	Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw Championship (6-Handed) (3 day event)	$10,000
Jun 18	SUN	2PM	43	Poker Players Championship (7-Handed) (5 day event)	$50,000
Jun 21/22	Wed/Thu	10AM	48	SENIORS No-Limit Hold’em Championship (Must be 50 years of age or older) Flight A (5 day event)	$1,000
Jun 21	WED	2PM	50	Pot-Limit Omaha Championship (8-Handed) (4 day event)	$10,000
Jun 23	FRI	2PM	54	H.O.R.S.E. Championship (Limit Hold’em; Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better, Razz, Seven Card Stud, Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo 8 or Better) (8-Handed) (4 day event)	$10,000
Jun 27	TUE	2PM	63	Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship (3 day event)	$10,000
Jun 28	Wed	10AM	64	Deepstack Championship No-Limit Hold’em (4 day event)	$600
Jun 29	THU	10AM	67	LADIES No-Limit Hold’em Championship (4 day event) (Event Entry is $10K; Ladies Discounted Price is $1K)	$10,000/$1,000
Jun 29	THU	2PM	69	No-Limit 2-7 Lowball Draw Championship (7-Handed) (3 day event)	$10,000
Jul 2	SUN	2PM	75	Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship (8-Handed) (4 day event)	$10,000
Jul 3 – 6	MON – THU	12PM	76	MAIN EVENT No-Limit Hold’em World Championship – Day 1A	$10,000
Jul 14	FRI	2PM	90	6-Handed No-Limit Hold’em Championship (3 day event)	$10,000

The Main Event

As always, the highlight of the series will be the Main Event. The Big Show gets going with the first Day 1 flight on Jul 3 at noon, but players looking for cheaper seats into the big game will have satellite opportunities from Jul 2 through Jul 7.

There are four starting days this year with the final Day 1 scheduled for Jul 6 and two Day 2 flights on the following two days. That means players getting a ticket in satellites on Jul 6 & 7 will be entering the game at the start of Day 2.

2023 WSOP Main Event Schedule

Date	Day	Time	EV#	Event Name
Jul 2 – 7				Main Event Satellite Days
Jul 3	MON	12PM	76A	MAIN EVENT No-Limit Hold’em World Championship – Day 1A
Jul 4	TUE	12PM	76B	MAIN EVENT No-Limit Hold’em World Championship – Day 1B
Jul 5	WED	12PM	76C	MAIN EVENT No-Limit Hold’em World Championship – Day 1C
Jul 6	THU	12PM	76D	MAIN EVENT No-Limit Hold’em World Championship – Day 1D
Jul 7	FRI	12PM		MAIN EVENT – Day 2ABC (For all surviving players 1A + 1B + 1C)
Jul 8	SAT	12PM		MAIN EVENT – Day 2D (For all surviving 1D players)
Jul 9	SUN	12PM		MAIN EVENT – Day 3 (combine all fields into one for first time)
Jul 10	MON	12PM		MAIN EVENT – Day 4
Jul 11	TUE	12PM		MAIN EVENT – Day 5
Jul 12	WED	12PM		MAIN EVENT – Day 6
Jul 13	THU	12PM		MAIN EVENT – Day 7
Jul 14	FRI	12PM		MAIN EVENT – Plays down to 9 players
Jul 15	SAT	OFF		MAIN EVENT – Day Off
Jul 16	SUN	TBD		MAIN EVENT – Final Table
Jul 17	MON	TBD		MAIN EVENT – Final Table

It’s the biggest poker party of the year and the schedule is now in. Here is the full schedule of this year’s WSOP to help you plan out your shot at a coveted WSOP Gold Bracelet this summer.

There was a lot of talk about how siloed state operations impacted prize pools, and the new combined pool between PokerStars NJ and PokerStars MI has proven the point with the biggest weekly guarantees in the US industry.

At the beginning of 2023, PokerStars Michigan and New Jersey combined to form a single player pool serving around 20 million potential players. While there has been a lot of talk about the impact shared liquidity could have on the industry, the PokerStars state merger this year is the first chance for real, on the ground, evidence since 2017 when WSOP New Jersey joined operations in Nevada and Delaware.

The proof is in the pudding, and PokerStars MI/NJ is serving that pudding. A month after the new combined pool came online, the operator is touting $1 million in guarantees per week in the new market.

The new combined player pool creates the biggest market in the regulated US industry at the moment, surpassing the previous behemoth of Pennsylvania. PokerStars PA serves around 14.5 million potential players, but the new combined pool of Michigan and New Jersey has just shy of 20 million people between the two states, That has allowed the operator to revamp its schedule and bump up the guarantees on regular daily events as well as weekly specials. The new schedule includes buy-ins ranging from $5 to $250 so there is likely something to appeal to all bankrolls.

The Sum Is Greater Than Parts

The new combined player pool that links players on PokerStars NJ and PokerStars MI went into effect at the beginning of 2023, and the operator threw a New Year’s Day party with $150k guaranteed over two special tournaments to celebrate the new pool on New Year’s Day.

Just a month into the new era, the bigger player pool is already showing benefits as PokerStars US announced total weekly guarantees of $1 million in the new market. There is nearly $250k guaranteed every week in nightly games like the Nightly Stars ($50 with $12.5k Gtd) plus a huge updated weekly schedule including the Sunday Special, Super Tuesday, and Thursday Thrill with more than $100k guaranteed in those three games alone.

Severin Rasset, Managing Director for PokerStars in the US, was very excited about the new guarantees. “We are excited to announce that we will be guaranteeing $1 million per week across our tournaments for our shared Michigan and New Jersey pool. The combined liquidity of NJ & MI enables us to reinforce our weekly schedule with more tournaments available every day, a wider variety of buy-ins, bigger guarantee and giving our players the best available in the market.”

While the players on PokerStars PA are still off playing by themselves, the Keystone State hasn’t been ignored. Along with the $1 million announced in MI/NJ, there is $500k guaranteed every week across the border in PA, from a weekly schedule that is very similar to the games in NJ/MI. That brings PokerStars’ total US guarantees to $1.5 million per week across PA and the multi-state pool.

It is fairly obvious in the poker world that bigger player pools leads to bigger prizes, but the proof is on the ground in the US this month. With the biggest weekly guarantee in the US regulated industry, the PokerStars MI/NJ compact is leading the way into a new era of US online poker.

Highlights of the $1 Million Weekly Schedule on PokerStars MI/NJ

Reoccurring Nightly Tournaments:

• 6:00 pm — Mini Nightly Stars ($25, $10k Gtd)
• 7:00 pm — Nightly Stars ($50, $12.5k Gtd)
• 7:00 pm — Nightly Stars Knockout ($50, $12.5k Gtd)

Weekly Tournaments:

• Sunday — Sunday Special ($100, $75k Gtd)
• Monday — Battle Royale ($100, $20k Gtd)
• Tuesday — Super Tuesday ($100, $22.5k Gtd)
• Wednesday — Wednesday Storm ($100, $22.5k Gtd)
• Thursday — Thursday Thrill ($100, $22.5k Gtd)
• Friday — Friday Night Fight ($100, $22.5k Gtd)
• Saturday: Deep Stack Saturday ($100, $20k Gtd)

The siloed Ontario poker market is now almost a year old, and partypoker Ontario is finishing the opening year with more than $100k in regular weekly. With Spins, cash games, Sit & Go games, and big tournament series, partypoker ON has something for every player

The new market in Canada’s largest province is maturing as it nears the end of its first year of operation since Ontario locked down online gambling to only locally licensed operators in early 2022. Among the early players on the new field was the global poker powerhouse partypoker ON.

The operator is competing with a lot of the usual suspects, including PokerStars Ontario, 888poker Ontario, and a collaboration between GGPoker and WSOP that plays on WSOP.ca. partypoker joins the crowded market of some 14.5 million people with two skins, running both as the native partypoker as well the operator’s partner in the US partypoker Network, BetMGM.

partypoker ON offers the full selection of online poker formats including cash games, sit & go games, jackpot poker and tournaments. Players can opt for two cards or four in most formats, and four-card lovers can also play the split-pot game.

Across the client, there are offerings for every player and bankroll. Spins, the partypoker version of jackpot games, range from $1 to $50 with prizes up to $500k. Regular sit & go games start at $5 while players can get into tournaments from as little as $0.55 for real money games and $0.33 (or free) for satellites.

More Than $100K in Tournament Guarantees Weekly

Among the highlights on partypoker ON is a robust weekly and daily tournament schedule. Super Sunday features large on the client with $35k in guarantees on the day of rest alone. Featured Sunday games include The Sunday High Roller, The Sunday 200, and The Super Sunday 100.

Between those three games alone, there is almost $25k up for grabs, but there is a lot more Super Sunday action to choose from. The Sunday High Roller offers the biggest guarantee of the week on the client, but it isn’t actually the best value game. That honor goes to The Super Sunday 10 and The Sunday Jab, both of which offer more than $90 in guarantee for every $1 spent on buy-in. The $1.10 Sunday Jab has $100 guaranteed, while the $11 Super Sunday 10 guarantees $1,000.

The Highest Value Games of the Week on partypoker ON

Game	Buy-In	GTD	Day	Time	$GTD/$Buy-In
The Super Sunday 10	$11.00	$1,000	Sun	16:30	$90.91
The Sunday Jab	$1.10	$100	Sun	15:05	$90.91
The Super Sunday 20	$22.00	$1,500	Sun	15:05	$68.18
The Terminator	$11.00	$750	Daily (excl Sun/Mon)	16:30	$68.18
The Super Sunday 30	$33.00	$2,000	Sun	17:05	$60.61

The Biggest Guarantees of the Week on partypoker ON

Game	Buy-In	GTD	Day	Time	$GTD/$Buy-In
The Sunday High Roller	$530.00	$15,000	Sun	17:05	$28.30
The High Roller	$530.00	$7,500	Tue/Thu	17:05	$14.15
The Daily C-Note	$109.00	$5,000	Daily	17:05	$45.87
The Super Sunday 100	$109.00	$5,000	Sun	17:05	$45.87
The Sunday 200	$215.00	$4,000	Sun	15:00	$18.60

Sit & Go’s, Spins, and More

There is more than just tournaments on offer at partypoker Ontario. If players are looking for cash game poker, the operator has PLO, Omaha Hi-Lo, and Hold’em games running from $0.05/$0.10 through $10/$25.

Players looking for the thrills of jackpot poker can get their fill with partypoker Spins in Ontario. With possible prize pools up to $500k, these lightning-fast three-handed games are the quickest way win some cash at the tables. Add in Fast Forward, partypoker’s version of the fast-fold cash game, and the operator has a full offering for every poker appetite.

Download partypoker ON today and win your share of more than $100k guaranteed every week.

Last week we brought you a bit of history about the most iconic poker event of the Baltic States, where you could meet the initiators of this wonderful event, held in the medieval capital of Estonia. You could also see which tournaments you should play during this event. But how does it feel to win such an epic Main Event at Kings of Tallinn? Winners in recent years walked away with incredible amounts between €37,000 and €127,000. We gave the microphone to the winners, so you can get a picture of what such amounts have brought about in regards of their poker careers.

It’s all getting pretty close now, the great Kings of Tallinn event will kick off a 10-day poker unique festival from February 24, until March 5. For the second time in history, there will be a €500,000 guaranteed Main Event. On top of that a record-breaking total of 53 tournaments and packed with 24/7 cash games in all sorts of formats, there’s no time to get bored. Literally everything you will see around you is pure value. With such a huge, guaranteed prize pool, this naturally entails a very heavy first prize.

We spoke to some of the previous Main Event winners:

Johan Creutz (Sweden) – Winner Main Event 2016 – €52,200

“When I won Kings of Tallin, I was playing poker as a hobby. Winning the tournament made me decide to quit my job and start playing poker full time which I have been doing since then. Kings of Tallin will always be in my heart because of that.”

Vitalijs Zavorotnijs (Latvia) – Winner Main Event 2019 – €85,300

“Kings of Tallinn is a great and well-organized event. The Hilton Hotel is beautiful and has, as I remember, a score of 9.0 on booking websites, and it goes for affordable prices as well. I have special feelings about Kings of Tallinn because it boosted my poker career to a high level. Currently I don’t live in the Baltics, so I am unsure to attend the event this year unfortunately.”

Johan Karlsson (Sweden) – Winner Main Event 2020 – €126,900

“I only have great things to say about Kings of Tallinn. It’s an excellent event in a beautiful city led by Teresa Nousiainen and her Amazing staff-team. Large selection of tournaments, lovely atmosphere. I have had the privilege of winning the Main Event, which was a fantastic experience. I will most likely attend the next Kings of Tallinn in February.”

Check out the full Kings of Tallinn 2023 schedule here.

The upcoming weeks we will give you all possible information about the history of the Kings of Tallinn poker event, as well as exclusive interviews with previous winners, but we will also give you a look behind the scenes! So, stay tuned and make sure to follow our social media channels:

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The first series of the year for 888poker had a bit more than $1.46 million guaranteed, but when the Winter blizzard settled, the series awarded nearly $1.56 million.

The first major online series of the year for 888poker is now complete and with nearly $1.54 million in total prizes awarded, it was a big success. That was over the total guarantees of about $1.46 million for a nice increase of about 5% in total money awarded.

Sweden’s Niklas “tutten7” Astedt was one of the big winners of the series after he took down the $2,100 Super High Roller game for more than $37.7k. He wasn’t the only big winner through the series however with Main Event winner “AMG_people” from Ukraine collecting nearly as much in prizes and bounties for their win.

The total money collected was just over $1.5 million as only 60% of the games in the series managed to hit their guarantees. With more than $107k in fees over the two weeks of poker games, the operator was easily able to cover to the ~$35k in overlay for the 8 games that missed guarantee.

Two countries rose to the top of the pile through the 28 games in the 2023 XL Winter Series. Brazil was hardly a surprise to see at the top of the list with five titles overall, but the co-winner from the series was Romania, also with five wins. With a population of just under 20 million people, the eastern European country was a bit more of a surprise at the top of the country standings.

Biggest Winner Didn’t Win Thanks to Mystery Format

It looks like the biggest winner of the week didn’t actually win an event. The $500k guaranteed Main Event was a mystery bounty format, and there was a whopping $50,000 in the virtual bounty barrel. Bounties were open from the start of Day 2, but more than 160 Day 2 players weren’t getting into the official prizes.

There was a lot of bounty action early on Day 2, and the big one went fairly early in the day, to German player “Sickslick”. They went on to pocket $900 for 29^th place in the game later in the day, and along the way collected a couple more bounties for a final total of more than $57k, which looks to be the biggest single player earnings across the whole series.

Germans did well in the mystery bounty portion of the Main Event. Another honorable mention goes to “Lenny03041” who managed to bag $15k without even cashing the event. They finished more than 60 players off the money, but managed to draw the $15k envelope from the bounty bin before that, for 7^th place in total money earned from the Main Event.

Romania and Lithuania Punch Above Their Weight

12 countries were represented among the winners of the 2023 XL Winter games and it wasn’t much of a surprise to see Brazil leading the pack with five titles. The growing South American poker powerhouse has 214 million people, and the explosion of interest has turned the region into one of the fastest growing markets in the world.

A bit more of a surprise was Romania, who tied with Brazil for the top spot with five wins as well. With just under 20 million people, the eastern European nation is barely a tenth the size of the South American powerhouse, but still managed to book as many titles.

Another national standout was Lithuania, who at about 2.8 million people is barely 1% the size of Brazil. That nation still managed to amass 4 titles and nearly $40k in total winners prizes, a prize total that was third among nations overall.

Interestingly, with only two wins, Sweden racked up the most money from wins. More than $42.5k went to Sweden in the series, largely thanks to Åstedt’s big Super High Roller win, while war-torn Ukraine added more than $40k in wins to its national bankroll from two wins over the series. Romania beat Brazil in this category with 4^th place on the list and almost $28k while Brazil couldn’t quite manage $17.5k from its five wins.

Country	Titles	Total 1st Place Prizes		Country	Titles	Total 1st Place Prizes
Romania	5	$27,798		Sweden	2	$42,680.00
Brazil	5	$17,474		Ukraine	2	$40,143.87
Lithuania	4	$39,438		Lithuania	4	$39,437.86
Germany	4	$27,316		Romania	5	$27,798.25
Sweden	2	$42,680		Germany	4	$27,315.56
Ukraine	2	$40,144		United Arab Emirates	1	$20,585.45
Thailand	1	$3,114		Brazil	5	$17,473.63
Austria	1	$721		United Kingdom	1	$14,000.00
United Kingdom	1	$14,000		Belarus	1	$7,521.42
United Arab Emirates	1	$20,585		Canada	1	$5,920.30
Belarus	1	$7,521		Thailand	1	$3,114.49
Canada	1	$5,920		Austria	1	$721.20

More Than 16,000 Entries

In the end, the series can only be called a success. 60% of the games broke their guarantees with more than 40k extra collected over the guaranteed value. In large part, that was thanks to 16,168 entries across the whole series.

The Main Event was a standout in most of the measures of a poker series. The big game got the most entries with more than 2,050 including rebuys, and had the biggest prize pool at $500k. The entries weren’t quite enough to break the guarantee, but it was still the biggest prize pool of the two weeks.

Other standout games included XL Winter 17 which broke its $200k guarantee by 3.5% for the second-biggest prize pool of the series. XL Winter 25, a $55 game with $50k guaranteed did 14% better than that with $57,150 in total prizes, for fifth place on the total winners’ prize ranking.

The $1,050 High Roller game did the best in terms on increase over tournament guarantee. It had $35k guaranteed, but ended up with $50k in the kitty for an increase of more than 42%. XL Winter 04 and XL Winter 15, both $109 games with $20k guaranteed, got prize pools of more than $27k for better than 35% over the promised totals.

Following a year of 20^th anniversary celebrations, the 2023 XL Winter Series was a great way for 888poker to kick off the new year.

The Beatles, Albert Einstein, New Year’s Eve, Hamburgers, the World Cup Final… all fixtures, people and things that are globally recognised. As far as poker is concerned, we have the Irish Open! Quite simply, it’s one of those traditional special events that we might all wish to add to our poker bucket list.

The next edition of this fantastic festival will be hosted by the Royal Dublin Society, 3-10 April, and feature a €1,000,000 Guaranteed Main Event. Fortunately, thanks to the wonderful world of real money online poker – which, increasingly, manages to provide players with so many opportunities to expand their horizons – it’s possible to win your way to this fantastic festival and battle it out for life-changing sums in the Irish capital in April.

There’s no time like the present, as they say, so dive in and start your quest to Dublin. Any online poker tournament fan, from beginner to seasoned veteran, has a chance of getting their hands on a Main Event ticket at bargain basement prices…        

Not surprisingly, given the history, status, presence and associations with major poker events, PokerStars is an official sponsor of the Irish Open and, as such, is hosting a range of qualifiers that features a mix of packages and seats being awarded in the run-up to Dublin. In fact, an impressive total of 23 will be won every week!

Routes to the Irish Open via PokerStars

• Sunday €1150 Seat & €350 expenses – 8 GTD
• Monday €1150 Seat – 5 GTD
• Wednesday €1150 Seat & €350 expenses – 5 GTD
• Friday €1150 Seat – 5 GTD

Note that all tournaments start at 7pm and have a €109 buy-in, with re-entries. As usual nowadays, PokerStars are making sure that everyone gets a chance at glory, so to this end there are Feeder satellites running every day with entries starting as low as €1.10!

Meanwhile, Paddy Power is also an official sponsor, and you can take advantage of their numerous satellite options, too:

• Monday €1150 Seat GTD, plus One Ticket Added Entry; €50 buy-in, with Rebuy and Add-on available
• Tuesday €1150 Seat GTD; €10 buy-in, with Rebuy and Add-on available

Looking for more poker fun? You’ll find the latest online poker bonuses and offers in our dedicated info section. Good luck, and have fun at the tables!

*Any mention of a bonus or discussion of such terms is not in relation to the province of Ontario.