Column: PokerStars Micro Millions - Taking the Small Stakes Into the Big Leagues
With the third installment of Micro Millions starting next week at PokerStars, Barry Carter looks at how low stakes games are starting to command life changing prizes.
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| Micro Millions III starts next week |
Low stakes tournaments tend not to attract much media attention despite the fact that they make up the vast majority of games which take place. It is much sexier to focus on seven-figure buy-ins and bracelets than it is to focus on nickel and dime games.
That said, smaller stakes tournaments are gathering a lot of momentum at the moment, so much so that they cannot be ignored any more. 2012 could well turn out to be the year of the micro stakes player.
The poker media has always focused on the big names, the millionaires, and the huge skill gap that exists in poker. That is totally understandable; we want to watch the Roger Federers, the Tiger Woods, the Muhammed Alis and the Lionel Messis of this world do what they do best.
In online poker terms, the marquee series to watch has been the PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP), and in previous years the Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS). Anyone has the opportunity to satellite into these events, and many do, but they have always felt a little exclusive for the majority.
SCOOP showed the way
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| SCOOP appealed to low and high stakes players alike |
Then the PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) showed that medium and low stakes players wanted their own version of WCOOP. The series had high stakes events just like WCOOP, but it also featured medium and low stakes events too, with buy-ins as low as $5.
The numbers were impressive for SCOOP and it remains one of the most popular online events of the year. It proved first that online players really wanted these festivals too (one of their more recent $27 events attracted 28,876 players with four players chopping for around $40,000 each).
More importantly, it proved that players with small bankrolls really could win life changing amounts of money in a single tournament. This was both inspiring for low stakes players, and suddenly made these small stakes games very interesting for the high stakes players too.
The micros
| Micro Millions Main Event |
 The biggest MicroMillions event so far was the $1 million guaranteed main event in July.
65,063 players entered the $22 buy-in event. Less than 12 hours later SoyDelGlobo of Argentina emerged victorious, turning his $22 into a life-changing $157,218.68. |
Step forward Micro Millions, a series which took this idea one step further by offering big guarantees for buy-ins as low as $0.11. The first prize for a recent $0.11 event was $7,332.37, a $1 rebuy netted one player $17,512.21 and the $11 Sunday Storm won one player $31,376.06.
Then of course was the $22 Main Event which attracted 65,063 players and the eventual winner took down over $150,000. That is enough to buy a good house in a lot of countries and for an entry fee which is less than the price of a DVD.
Micro stakes tournaments have always had good ROIs for the winners because the fields are usually large, but only recently have the prizes been what most would consider life changing. Most people can justify the buy-ins in the Micro Millions series, and now most people have a chance to win those life changing prizes we see on TV.
Micro Millions launched this year and the series has been so popular it will already have its third incarnation next week, from November 15 to 25.
With 100 tournaments in total boasting buy-ins between $0.11 and $22, guarantees are still anywhere between $5,000 and $1 million.
Micro logistics
| World Record Tournament |
 On December 4, 2011, PokerStars celebrated their 10th Anniversary in micro stakes style.
They guaranteed $250,000 for a buy-in of just $1 in the world record attempt tournament. They attracted 200,000 players and would have attracted many more had they not capped the event. The eventual winner was sokoluk1991 of Russia who turned his $1 into $40,258. |
PokerStars seem to have also tackled some of the logistical problems one would encounter with such a series. WCOOP and SCOOP events take place at sociable times for Europeans (who make up the main audience) and can last for nearly 24 hours over the course of two days.
This is fine for the vast majority of people who can afford the higher buy-ins. The long hours are worth it because of the potential prize on offer, and many of them are professional players or otherwise have a certain level of financial freedom, which means they don't have to worry about work the next day.
This is not a very attractive proposition for a microstakes player; nobody wants to risk losing their job for a $2.20 tournament no matter how big the prize.
This appears to have been solved first by staggered start times throughout the day, meaning you can find a tournament to suit your hours. They also have quite fast (but still very good) structures. Even the 65,063-runner Main Event took less than 12 hours in the last run.
Micro Marketing
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| PokerStars celebrate 200,000 players in one tournament |
One of the hot topics on everybody's lips is how to attract new players to the game. I think events like Micro Millions are one great way of doing that.
The big appeal of poker is the Chris Moneymaker-esque Cinderella stories, where an amateur can become an overnight millionaire.
These stories bring new players to poker in theory, but in practice they still have to find a way to afford or satellite into these high stakes events.
Now that we are at a point where Micro stakes tournaments can genuinely bring with them not only kudos, but also life changing prizes, I think this is where the marketing focus should go.
We should remind potential new players that anyone can win big in poker and they can do it at the very bottom of the ladder.
I hope more sites, and even live events, take a leaf out of PokerStars' book and show respect to the vast majority who somehow go underrepresented in poker, by giving us more high profile events for low stakes like the Micro Millions.
