To say many online poker tournaments are happening in New Jersey at the moment would be an understatement. WSOP.com is running its 2020 Spring Online Championships, which consists of 100 poker tournaments that began April 1 and will end May 3. The Borgata Spring Poker Open is taking place from April 5-12, while 96 more poker tournaments are scheduled from April 11-27 in PokerStars’ New Jersey Spring Championship of Online Poker (NJSCOOP).
The NJ SCOOP has a smaller prize pool than the Pennsylvania SCOOP’s $2 million, which is not surprising since PokerStars is the only online poker operator in the Keystone State. Still, the $1.2 million guaranteed kitty in New Jersey is significant larger than in previous editions of the series.
The online poker business is surging. The coronavirus issue has closed the doors for the land-based Atlantic City casinos, which has led to a sharp spike in online gaming activity. In the last few weeks, the New Jersey online poker industry has seen the highest participation rates since the pursuit was legalized in 2013.
There are high and low buy-in tournaments for both the New Jersey and Pennsylvania SCOOP tournaments, so high rollers and low-stakes players alike can take part in the action. The lowest tournament buy-in for the NJ SCOOP tournaments is $5, while the highest is $1,000. There are eight tournaments in the series with a buy-in of at least $300:
• April 12 Sunday Special SE NLHE – $300 buy-in, $45k guaranteed
• April 14 Super Tuesday SE NLHE – $300 buy-in, $35k guaranteed
• April 15 Six-Max 8-Game – $500 buy-in, $17.5k guaranteed
• April 19 Sunday Special SE NLHE – $350 buy-in, $50k guaranteed
• April 19 Six-Max Turbo NLHE – $300 buy-in, $25k guaranteed
• April 20 Four-Max NLHE – $300 buy-in, $30k guaranteed
• April 21 Six-Max NLHE High Roller – $1k buy-in, $45k guaranteed
• April 26 NLHE Main Event – $300 buy-in, $100k guaranteed
It is likely the prize pools will be higher than the guaranteed amount. In the first few tournaments of the SCOOP series in Pennsylvania, the prize pools increased significantly and some of them reached more than double the original guarantee.
The Main Event of the NJ SCOOP is a two-day no-limit hold’em tournament that will be held from April 26-27. The high buy-is $300 with a prize pool of $100,000 and the low buy-in is $50 with a prize pool of $30,000. There is a freeroll for new players at PokerStars that will take place on April 26 and award 30 seats to the $300 buy-in tournament.
PokerStars is also awarding seats to that tournament via Spin & Go events, which cost $3 to enter. For every day of the NJ SCOOP, players who have already busted out of other events can win a share of $1,000 in the Second Chance All-In Shootout Freerolls.