The PokerStars Galactic Series has concluded with the company claiming it as the Southern European shared liquidity market’s biggest ever online poker tournament series with a total prize pool of Euro 16,973,768, surpassing its Euro 15 million guarantee.
A total of 50,612 players hit the virtual felt during the 186-event schedule. The series, which ran from August 26 – September 13, was also the longest yet held in the Southern Europe shared liquidity market and featured the biggest single-event guarantee at Euro 1.5 million.
PokerStars reports that the Main Event had 6,430 entries, with French players enjoying the most Main Event success with five countrymen making it to the final table, and the top four spots taken by French players.
French success characterised the whole series with players from France winning the most events – 42 in total– followed by Spain with 30 events and Portugal with 20.
“Sharing liquidity among these three markets continues to allow us to offer our players the most attractive tournaments with the biggest guarantees,” said Severin Rasset, director of poker innovation and operations at The Stars Group.
Outside of the Main Event, key tournament highlights included the Sunday Special on 2 September, which surpassed its Euro 350,000 guarantee by more than Euro 20,000, and the Super Thursday on 13 September, which exceeded its Euro 150,000 guarantee by almost Euro 100,000. The Euro 10 buy-in Classico events proved to be very popular as well, with an average of 15,000 entries across three Sundays.
This latest series in Portugal, France and Spain follows PokerStars successes at the Trio Series, France and Spain’s Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP), and the FRESH (France Espania Hold’em) Series, which all beat their guarantees.