Pokerstars SCOOP Guide And Satellite Qualifiers

Qualify For The Big Prize Pools In This Years Pokerstars SCOOP

Pokerstars ‘Spring Championship Of Online Poker’ (SCOOP) has claimed the 2nd spot overall for online poker events – behind the other big Pokerstars offering the World Championship. The next SCOOP is scheduled to start in early May 6th 2012 and features a massive $30,000,000 in guaranteed prizes.

What makes the SCOOP different from the many other online poker events is that there are 3 buy-in levels for each tournament in the schedule. These are low (from $11 through $55), mid ($109 through $215) and high (from $1000 up). This allows players of all bankroll levels to get involved – and with 1000's of satellite qualifiers available to the events, smaller stakes players will have a legitimate shot at some really huge prize pools too.

Here I’ll outline the highlights and link to the full schedule, then cover the different satellite qualifiers available including my picks for the best value for SNG Planet readers. Before that a quick word about this year's SCOOP Reload bonus, which is a 50% match up to $250 on any new deposit before the end of May 3rd, all you need to do is use bonus code MAX250 when you deposit. Pokerstars offer a lot of these extra bonuses for existing players throughout the year - so make sure you are registered and ready for the next one!

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Pokerstars SCOOP – Overview Of The Event + Link To Full Schedule

Here are some highlights for the 2012 Spring Championship:

- Runs From May 6th Through To May 20th 2012
- 40 Events Total, Each With 3 Different Buy-In Levels
- $30 Million Guaranteed (These guarantees are always beaten, I'll guess that $50 million will be paid based on the totals from the last couple of years).
- Smallest Buy-In = $11, Biggest = $25,500
- Leaderboard Contest + Overall Hall Of Fame
- All Players Get The Chance To Win Seats Via Satellite Qualifiers... 1000's and 1000's of satellite qualifiers!

For the full schedule follow this link, the SCOOP banner is smack in the middle of the page around 1/3rd down.

Pokerstars SCOOP – Satellite Qualifiers

With so many satellites to choose from and buy-ins starting at just 25c (or 50 FPPs) there will be a lot of players qualifying for seats in this years event. This guide takes you through the types of SCOOP satellites currently available – what usually happens with Stars events is that there are more and more satellites available up close to the events (including in the hours before), so I’ll update this area of the page as and when new ones get announced. What is distinctive in the 2012 SCOOP satellites listing is the huge amount of qualifiers which guarantee at least one seat - if this does not ensure busy fields then I do not know what will!

One more thing to note – you will find the satellites listed in a distinctive bright orange in the Pokerstars software!

SCOOP Satellites #1 – Steps SNGs: There are two ways of using the Steps SNGs to grab your SCOOP tickets. Firstly, if you win your way to Step 4 you can use the $215 value to enter any tournament of your choice. This is ideal for many of the ‘mid’ buy-in championship events. Second, there are specials within the Steps – for example Step 4 SNGs awarding entry into the high buy-in for event 3 and Step 6 awarding entry into the high buy in main event.

SCOOP Satellites #2 – Double Shootouts: Essentially 2 consecutive SNG tournaments, where the winners go forward to a ‘final table’ and play for seats and runner-up cash prizes. These can be 6 or 9 person and turbo or standard speed – you can even find 3 round ‘triple shootouts’. With buy-ins starting at the $2 range these will be popular ways to win SCOOP seats, especially since many guarantee a number of seats.

SCOOP Satellites #3 – Hyper Turbo Qualifiers: Players start with just 500 chips in these fast and furious events, with blinds increasing every 3 minutes. Size of the fields are often fixed in single or multi-table format. Again there are a huge range of buy-ins. These are crazy games, yet hugely popular – you’ll need to have a good grasp of push / fold ranges and nerves of steel!

SCOOP Satellites #4 – Multi-Table Tournament Qualifiers: This can be broken down into several online poker tournament formats including rebuys, turbo and 2x turbo (longer rebuy period) as well as those with fixed buy-ins. Many of these tournaments will guarantee numbers of seats, which ensures that they are busy. These are a natural choice for casual players and the standard of play is often poor, especially at the bubble. Certainly +ev for thinking players if you can navigate the minefield. Where the satellites are marked as 'Round 1' you can use these to win a seat in a bigger satellite (though watch out for qualifiers into rebuys, it can be frustrating when you win a seat in a big satellite and then can not afford the rebuy or add-on).

SCOOP Satellites #5 – Super-Satellites: In the days running up to the events, we can expect to see ‘supersatellites’ guaranteeing anything from 10 to 200 seats (and maybe more). These have their own qualifiers in all of the formats mentioned and are one of my personal favorites. Again the key is that you will find a lot of ‘dead money’ in the field – making them profitable for experienced entrants and soft enough to attract recreational players too.

So many to choose from – for me the Multi-Table tournaments which run either on the day or in the days preceding the events are the real soft spot.

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