How Do I Participate in the $100K Depositor Freerolls Promotion?

All players need to do in order to participate in the Depositor Freerolls is make a deposit into their account. Once you’ve made a deposit into your account using the bonus code listed below you’ll receive access to four daily $1K Freerolls for 31 days. In total you’ll have the chance to play for over $100,000 in 31 days at PokerStars without spending a penny on a buy-in. If you’re ready to make a deposit to claim access to the Depositors Freerolls you need to use one of the bonus codes below.

• If you’ve never played at PokerStars make sure you use the bonus code “STARS600”. Not only will you receive entry into the Depositors Freerolls for 31 days, but you’ll also be able to earn a 100% bonus for up to $600.

• Players that already have accounts at PokerStars can still participate in the promotion. You need to make a qualifying deposit into your account using the bonus code “100K” when you make your deposit.

The Depositors Freerolls will be using a special freebuy tournament format. The tournament is free to enter for players that have made a qualifying deposit, but for the first hour of each freeroll players will be able to rebuy for $.30. The $.30 will be added to the $1000 prize pool, so PokerStars isn’t making anything off of these tournaments. I like the freebuy method because it allows you to have a few chances at winning each of the $1K Freerolls.

The freeroll tournaments will be hosted four times everyday and each of the freerolls will have a $1000 prize pool. The tournaments will start at 4:00ET, 10:00ET, 15:00ET and 21:00ET, so everyone will have a chance to play in the freerolls regardless of what time zone you live in. The freerolls will be listed under the “Freerolls” tab in the tournament section of the PokerStars lobby.

PokerStars has stated that the freerolls will be running until May 20th 2012 for now. This could change, but for now this is when the last freerolls will be hosted. If you make a deposit after April 19th you won’t receive 31 days access to freerolls, but you’ll still be able to play in the freerolls until May 20th. If you make a deposit today, once the 31 days is up you can make another deposit using the bonus code above to receive another 31 days access to the Depositors Freerolls.

To ensure that as many players participate in the Red Spade Open as possible PokerStars is also selling tickets to the event in the VIP Store. The cost of the ticket varies based on your VIP status with PokerStars, but the cheapest that you can purchase the ticket for is 3100 FPP’s. If you’ve been saving up your FPP’s for something special you should definitely purchase a ticket to this event, as you’ll have a chance to win $200K+ for taking down 1st place.

The unique feature about the Red Spade Open is that lots of PokerStars Team Pros and Online Team Members will be playing in the tournament with everyone. Members of Team PokerStars will have a red spade next to their name in the tournament lobby, so it won’t be hard to tell if you’re playing against one of the PokerStars Team members. There will be a $100 bounty on each team member and if you knock one of the players out you’ll instantly receive $100.

The tournament only has a buy-in of $55 and with $100 bounties up for grabs you’ll be able to make money by knocking out one of the PokerStars Team members. Plenty of players will also grab a share of the $1M prize pool, so for $55 you should definitely play in this event. Since this tournament is running on the 20th there won’t be a Bigger $55 on the 20th, which means that if you normally play in the Bigger $55 this is the tournament that you’ll be playing in on the 20th of this month.

If you’ve never played at PokerStars in the past make sure you claim the sign-up bonus on your 1st deposit. PokerStars always runs the best MTT’s and it’s a great idea to have a PokerStars account simply for the MTT’s. Every week there is millions of dollars up for grabs at PokerStars in MTT’s and if you’re not playing in them you’re missing out on some great action.

• The Big $3.30 – 1:00ET / $5K GTD Prize Pool
• The Big $16.50 – 3:30ET / $10K GTD Prize Pool
• The Big $8.80 – 10:30ET / $16K GTD Prize Pool
• The Big $4.40 – 17:30ET / $8K GTD Prize Pool
• The Big $27.50 – 20:00ET – $7.5K GTD Prize Pool

There are now 13 Daily Bigs on the schedule everyday at PokerStars, which is awesome. There is almost always a Daily Bigs about to start at PokerStars with the addition of the new events, so MTT players will have even more options. I like the fact that the new tournaments have small buy-ins for the most part. 3 of the 5 new tournaments have buy-ins under $10 as you’ve noticed by now I’m sure and that means that most of you guys will be able to play in these new tourneys regularly.

A lot of the current Daily Bigs had big buy-ins and most players wouldn’t be able to play in them daily, but with the buy-ins now under $10 on most of the Daily Bigs we should start seeing an increased number of participants shortly. Most players aren’t going to know about the new Daily Bigs initially, so you may find that a couple of them have overlays this week. Take advantage of the fact that these tournaments have just been added to the PokerStars lobby this week and make sure you enter the events.

It’s great to see PokerStars adding new tournaments with guaranteed prize pools to their current schedule, as it means that the demand is obviously there. If you’ve never played with PokerStars before they’re the busiest poker room in the world and they constantly run amazing promotions for players to participate in. Make sure you take full advantage of the bonus offered by PokerStars and don’t forget that the bonus can be split-up over your 1st three deposits.

• Entrants – 6552 / Prize Pool – $1,310,400

The PokerStars Sunday Million is still drawing in a huge crowd and this past week the event easily went over the $1M Guarantee. This week there was actually a 5-way deal in the Sunday Million, so the top 5 players ended up splitting a nice chunk of the prize pool. VanDerPelto ended up winning the event after the deal was made and earned $131K. Peter Traply finished in 2nd place ($156K), DreamOnDream finished in 3rd place ($97K), SteinTommy finished in 4th place (106K) and Oskar0610 finished in 5th place ($88K).

PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up

• Entrants – 3364 / Prize Pool – $672,800

The Sunday Warm-Up at PokerStars has a guaranteed prize pool of $500K and this week the prize pool easily surpassed the $500K mark. There was no deal made in the event this week, which meant the winner was going to walk away with the only six figure payday. Abeainy finished the Sunday Warm-Up in 1st place and took home $105K this week. ALKADYPA finished in 2nd place and won $78K while 3rd place went to Charoff ($55K) this weekend.

PokerStars Sunday 500

• Entrants – 558 / Prize Pool – $279,000

The PokerStars Sunday 500 barely made it over the $250K Guarantee this weekend, but with the small playing field, it was definitely a good tournament to play in. Mick Graydon won $52K for finishing the event in 1st place, Alexandre Gomes won $38K for finishing in 2nd place and Bar-Bar9999 won $28K for taking down 3rd place in the event this Sunday.

Right now is a great time to join PokerStars and play in the Sunday Majors due to the fact that players in the USA can no longer play in them. The playing fields have become smaller and the level of competition has also become worse, as many pros lived in the USA and played in these Sunday Majors every single week.

• Entrants – 8273 / Prize Pool – $1,654,600

We won’t be seeing an overlay in the PokerStars Sunday Million in the future, but there is no doubt that it’s still the best event to play in every week. Over 8200 players participated in the Poker Stars Sunday Million this past week and Diego Aizenberg ended up winning the tournament, which marked his 2nd victory in the Sunday Million. It’s hard enough winning this tourney once, but to win it twice is a very hard accomplishment that Diego can now see he’s achieved. Diego ended up winning $243K for 1st place, Tonho32 won $177K for finishing in 2nd place and LennanAlm took home $124K for finishing in 3rd place.

PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up

• Entrants – 4634 / Prize Pool – $926,800

The Sunday Warm-Up at PokerStars feel just short of $1M in the prize pool, but that didn’t stop the top two players from walking away with a six figure payday. Narbe86 took down the crown this week in the Sunday Warm-Up and won $145K. Second place in the tourney was taken down by professional player Andrew Lichtenberger and he won a little over $100K. Dean Price finished in 3rd place this weekend and he ended up earning $76K for his efforts. The Sunday Warm-Up was dominated by familiar names this Sunday and it proves how hard it is to win one of these major weekly tournaments at PokerStars.

PokerStars Sunday 500

• Entrants – 962 / Prize Pool – $500,000

As mentioned previously, the PokerStars Sunday 500 had an overlay this Sunday, which doesn’t happen all too often. The winner of the Sunday 500 this weekend was Willy Banaan and he took home the 1st place prize of $87K. Jordan Young won 2nd place in the Sunday 500 and earned $63K while Mike Telker won $47K for finishing in 3rd place in the Sunday 500. Make sure you try playing in the Sunday 500 next weekend, as there may be another overlay.

• Entrants – 1111 / Prize Pool – $555,500

There was no deal in the smallest of the three majors at PokerStars every Sunday and the 1st place winner almost ended up winning $100K, but the 1st place prize was just less than that. Anthony Gregg outlasted the playing field of 1111 players and won $94K, which will only add to his bankroll. Tlyzack won just under $70K for finishing in 2nd place this weekend in the Sunday 500 and Kovalski1 took home $52K for finishing the event in 3rd place. This is one of the best tournaments to play in because the playing field is never that big and most of the pros are playing in other tournaments on Sunday.

PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up

• Entrants – 5213 / Prize Pool – $1,042,600

The Sunday Warm-Up had a 3-way deal this weekend and each of the players won six-figures. With over $1M in the prize pool this weekend the Sunday Warm-Up has been becoming more popular amongst online poker players. After the deal was made the final three players finished up the tournament to see who would end up winning 1st place honours. Stofzuiger73 took down 1st place after the deal and won the most money, as Stofzuiger73 won $151K. AVAN77 won $111K for finishing in 2nd place and Radik-DN won $107K for finishing in 3rd place.

Poker Stars Sunday Million

• Entrants – 10,352 / Prize Pool – $2,070,400

The Poker Stars Sunday Million went over $2M and there weren’t any promotions running, which is rare. Over 10,000 players took part in the tournament this weekend and lets hope that we can break the 10K mark again next week. This is easily the biggest event of the week in any poker room and if you aren’t playing in it yet, you should be. The top 5 players in the tournament decided to make a deal this week because of the massive prize pool, so we’re going to take a look at how each of the top 5 players placed.

• 1st Place – Klorinho1 $172K
• 2nd Place – Graftekkel $201K
• 3rd Place – Cardinal2003 $164K
• 4th Place – Timmybwee $145K
• 5th Place – Davianvalek $141K

• Entrants – 1056 / Prize Pool – $528K

PokerStars Sunday 500 barely went over the $500K guarantee this week, but that didn’t stop the eventual final table players from receiving a nice payday. Alex Santiago was able to take down the title this week and won $91K, which is almost 20% of the prize pool, proving that the top players receive the majority of the money in MTT’s. Caecilius won exactly $66K for finishing the Sunday 500 in the runner-up position. Sergey Rybachenko rounded up the top three this week in the Sunday 500 and he took home a nice sized check worth a little over $50K.

PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up

• Entrants – 4989 / Prize Pool – $997,800

For the 1st time in a while the Sunday Warm-Up was extremely close to breaking the $1M prize mark, but it ended up falling just short this week by a total of only 11 players. Due to the huge prize pool there ended up being a 4-way deal. We’re going to take a look at how much each of the four players won below starting with 1st place and moving down the list until we end with the 4th place finisher.

• Maethi – $148K
• Kubuzkuz – $87K
• Hallrmonky2 – $87K
• Linzy69 – $87K

PokerStars Sunday Million

• Entrants – 9147 / Prize Pool – $1,829,400

With over 9K players it was a little surprising that there wasn’t a deal in the Sunday Million this week, but it also meant that the eventual final few players made off with an excellent payday. JustPushIt was the monster winner this week online, as he took down the 1st place prize and won $261K. WinnersClub won $192K for finishing the Sunday Million as the runner-up this Sunday and last but not least, SoulMaster7 walked away with 3rd place and a massive prize of $123K.

• Entrants – 988 / Prize Pool – $500,000

Several PokerStars regulars made it to the final table in the PokerStars Sunday 500 this weekend, but none of them were able to crack the final three. With fewer than 1000 players in the tournament this week, the prize pool didn’t exceed the guaranteed $500K, but only by a little bit. Exan13 won the title and $87K first place prize after outlasting a tough final table this Sunday. JavaHound came close to winning, but ended up finishing in 2nd place and won $63.5K. AhKhQhJh10h took home just under $50K for taking down 3rd place honours in the 1st PokerStars Sunday 500 this month.

PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up

• Entrants – 4710 / Prize Pool – $942,000

The PokerStars Sunday 500 went over the guaranteed prize amount, but it didn’t break the 1M threshold this week. A very familiar name ended up winning this week, but I’m sure most of you would never guess who it was. Liv Boeree beat everyone in the event this week and won herself about $150K for her efforts. James Mackey came extremely close to winning the Sunday Warm-Up this weekend, but after a long heads-up battle he fell just short and won $109K for 2nd place. Aduobe4 I’m sure is ecstatic as well after leaving the felt with over $77K for rounding up the top three on Sunday.

PokerStars Sunday Million

• Entrants – 8134 / Prize Pool – $1,626,800

Generally we see at least one deal being made on Sundays at PokerStars, but this week we were treated with one of the rare weeks where we don’t see any deals. I’m sure Marin06 is happy that there was no deal made, as Marin walked away with just shy of a quarter million dollars for winning the Sunday Million this weekend. Ashley Mason won 2nd place ($178K) and Matt Ezrol won 3rd place ($122K) this weekend. All three players earned six figures in the event and I’m sure it won’t be the last time we see these players at the top of the Sunday Majors leaderboards.

Find Seat: The Find Seat feature has been changed a bit. Most of the changes here, have occurred on the back-end. It’s now possible to easily join 24 tables. The same is true for swapping tables.

Volume Sliders: There is now a master volume slider. It controls all of the site’s sound, There are also volume sliders for each particular sound. Both can be found by looking by clicking the Options tab and then Sound Settings.

Heads Up Tournament Brackets: PokerStars.com can now display Heads Up tournament brackets directly from the Tourney Lobby. These brackets will show the opponent’s pairings and also how the tournament is progressing. In many ways, this is akin to how a sports tournament brackets are drawn. As of now, the bracket structure will only be made available after the field has been whittled down to 64 players. This is currently a Beta stage feature. It will first be used in Heads Up tournament play.

Register to Any: The major change here involves the ability to use the ‘Register to Any’ function without disabling the Auto-open function when the Tournament Lobby is opened. This does several things, including decreasing the amount of clicks required to join Sit and Gos through the ‘Register to Any’ function or the ‘Registered in Tournaments’ tab.

Miscellaneous Changes: Additional updates made to the software include changes in the font which appears in the dialog texts. It is now easier to view and read in Windows. The window which holds the Detached Chat feature can now be detached from the table by pressing a button. Another pretty cool feature is the “Find Seat” pop-up button. It automatically pop-ups when a person has used the “When Seat Me” feature and it has failed. The former will direct a player to a table identical to one already filled.

The poker aspect of the event will also start on the 7th, but not until 17:00. The players will all play poker until the final table has been determined at which point the action will stop until the next day. On the 8th of January the final table will be played out and the winners party will begin at 21:00. Everyone that participates in the tournament is welcome to the winner’s party after the event to take part in the festivities and watch the winner’s ceremony.

If you want to play in the Fish & Chips Showdown all you need to do is try and qualify on PokerStars. There are going to be plenty of satellite tournaments at PokerStars over the next month offering packages to this event. Not only will you receive a free buy-in to the event, but you’ll also receive free accommodation at the Atlantis Resort, which is where everyone will be staying for the 2011 PCA. If you’ve always wanted to play poker with the best players in the world you’ll have that chance in the New Year.

If you do qualify for the event at PokerStars you’ll want to make sure you visit their website to read over all of the rules for this special event. There are quite a number of rules that need to be followed during the fishing aspect of this event, so if you qualify for this event it’s imperative that you spend some time reading over all of the rules. It’d also be a good idea to print the rules and bring them with you to the tournament, so you don’t forget anything.