The upcoming PokerStars NJCOOP online poker series honors Chris Moneymaker for his 2003 WSOP Main Event title and is set to award more than $1 million in prize pool money over 47 events.
Players in New Jersey have from September 29 to October 15 to get in on the action.
Are You the Next Chris Moneymaker?
The PokerStars NJCOOP gives players a chance to win a $30,000 Platinum Pass to the PokerStars Players Championship (PSPC) in the Bahamas this coming winter. To scoop that valuable pass, you must win the $86 buy-in Moneymaker Tour Event.
That tournament buy-in has some meaning behind it. In 2003, Chris Moneymaker won an $86 satellite on PokerStars into the WSOP Main Event. As you may have heard a time or 200, he went on to become world champion. His $2.5 million victory drew attention to the game.
Soon after the tournament aired on ESPN, poker saw a massive growth in popularity. Millions of people aspired to be the next Chris Moneymaker.
PokerStars is now attempting to find the next Moneymaker. The online poker site is awarding 300 Platinum Passes, good for travel expenses and a $25,000 seat in January’s PSPC. Players in New Jersey can win one of those passes during the PokerStars NJCOOP on September 30.
Perhaps, someone in the Garden State will be the next online player to turn $86 into millions.
Losers Win in PokerStars NJCOOP?
Even if you fail to cash in a PokerStars NJCOOP event, you still have a chance to win money. The legal US poker site is offering players who don’t cash a ticket into a Second Chance Freeroll.
So, even if you donk away your chips with seven-deuce, you’ll have another opportunity to win money. That’s assuming, of course, you don’t continue your poor play in the freeroll.
Spinoff of PokerStars Global WCOOP
The New Jersey Championship of Online Poker (NJCOOP) is a smaller scale version of the PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) series that began last week. The 2018 WCOOP guarantees over $116 million including a $10 million guaranteed Main Event.
You won’t find million-dollar events during the New Jersey series. But there are a few tournaments that might wet your appetite, including a $1,000 high roller on October 9 ($50,000 guaranteed).
Tournament buy-ins for the PokerStars NJCOOP range from $25 to $1,000. There are events for players at every level, even micro-stakes grinders.
Last year’s inaugural NJCOOP had 46 events and awarded more than $1.2 million to winners. It was one of the largest online poker series in state history.
