One of the biggest events of the PokerStars Blowout Series shuffles up and deals on Sunday evening. The Blowout Series: $530 NLHE [8-Max, The Big Blowout!] sees the first cards pitched at 6:05 p.m. GMT on January 10 and it will be nothing short of huge.
The Big Blowout! features a massive $5 million guaranteed prize pool so will attract some of the world’s best players to the PokerStars virtual felt. It commands a $530 buy-in and for that princely sum you receive 25,000 chips and to a 20-minute clock where the blinds start at 50/100/12a.
PokerStars allows up to three re-entries during the late registration period, which is open for 24 hours, right up to the start of Day 2. The tournament breaks after the conclusion of the 17th level and resumes at 6:10 p.m. on January 11. Anyone making it through to Day 2 then continues the grind until only 16 players remain before returning to the action at 6:05 p.m. GMT on January 12 to crown a champion.
There are dozens of satellites for this event, as you’d expect, which start from only $5.50. Perhaps the best value satellite takes place at 5:15 p.m. GMT on January 10 because it has 100 seats guaranteed for only a $22 buy-in!
What to Expect From The Blowout!
This event has run twice already during The Blowout Series. A $109 buy-in edition took place on December 27 and it’s fair to say it didn’t go to plan for PokerStars at least. It needed 50,000 players to hit the $5 million guarantee but only 37,673 bought in, leaving PokerStars nursing an overlay in excess of $1.2 million, the largest-ever in the online poker world.
“pilaa” didn’t care, however, because they finished in first-place and banked a cool $381,173 after a four-handed deal with “n3kt” ($260,164), “leonardoc01” ($342,876) and Jack “JBHInfinity” Hardcastle ($270,763).
The $215 buy-in edition took place the following week and performed much better. A field of 31,855 entrants created a $6,371,000 prize pool. It too ended in a deal, but a six-handed one!
Cosmin “UnHuman3” Voinea was crowned champion and the Romanian walked away with $456,345 from a single bullet. “Flush098765” ($370,143), “W.Slomczynski” ($271,277), “Olegent” ($209,607), “Jesper8” ($291,246), and “Anchises1” ($314,697) were the other grinders who were part of the deal.
Follow All The Action From The $5 Million Blowout Event
PokerNews’ team of elite reporters are on the ground throughout The Blowout and will provide you with updates of all the action from the first cards right through to a champion being crowned. Head to our Live Reporting pages this weekend and enjoy our coverage.
