PokerStars Celebrates 15 Years of Sunday Storm With Special $500K PKO Edition

PokerStars is about to have a good time the fifteenth anniversary of the Sunday Storm with a particular $500,000 assured version performed in a Progressive Knockout (PKO) phased format. The anniversary collection options dozens of Part 1 flights starting Friday, April 17, with Part 2 scheduled for Could 10.

Gamers might enter Part 1 a number of instances till they end with chips and qualify for Part 2. Every Part 1 event performs all the way down to the highest 3% of the sphere, with all remaining gamers advancing with their chip stacks. Any participant who finishes Part 1 with chips will carry their stack ahead to Part 2.

For this particular anniversary version, the operator is utilizing a multi-flight construction, a departure from the event’s traditional single-day format and reserved particularly for this commemorative run.

Whereas the anniversary version highlights the longevity of the event, it additionally serves as a reminder of how a lot the net poker panorama has modified for the reason that Sunday Storm first appeared.

Sunday Storm fifteenth Anniversary Particulars:

$11 buy-in, $500,000 GTE
PKO, with a number of flights/phases
Part 1 kicks off April 17
Part 2 on Could 10 (2-Day occasion)
Winner to be topped on Could 11

Curiously, the event made its debut in March 2011 because the Sunday 1/4 Million earlier than later being rebranded because the Sunday Storm. It featured an $11 buy-in and a $300,000 assure, frequently drawing fields exceeding 30,000 entries. Its first version was briefly boosted to a $1 million assured occasion, earlier than settling into its common Sunday schedule and changing into one in all on-line poker’s most recognizable low-stakes tournaments.

Nevertheless, its launch got here simply days earlier than Black Friday in April 2011, a day that modified on-line poker not only for US gamers but additionally for these world wide. The shutdown affected main US-facing operators, together with PokerStars, Full Tilt, and Absolute Poker/Final Guess, following the DOJ notices.

Whereas Full Tilt and Absolute Poker in the end ceased operations, PokerStars remained open, although its US participant pool exited nearly in a single day, inflicting a major contraction in liquidity throughout the business. The results of that shift proceed to be felt even right this moment.

Regardless of these adjustments, the Sunday Storm has remained a fixture on the PokerStars schedule. Its common assure has steadily declined over time, from round $200,000 for a few years, to $150,000, then $100,000, and now nearer to the $75,000 vary.

The decline has largely adopted a shrinking dot-com participant pool, notably as PokerStars has withdrawn from a lot of gray markets over time.

The $500,000 anniversary version marks a short lived return to the event’s extra bold early-era scale, although the format and construction have modified over time.

One notable absence from the 2026 calendar thus far is the Sunday Million Anniversary version. Historically held between February and April, the anniversary version of the Sunday Million has not but run this yr. The Sunday Million stays PokerStars’ most iconic on-line occasion, however its frequency and ensures have develop into much less constant in latest seasons.

In earlier years, the anniversary version frequently featured ensures between $8 million and $10 million. Final yr, that determine dropped to round $6 million, as on-line event liquidity continued to skinny. In reality, the Sunday Million has not been working on a assured weekly scale as of today, with overlays changing into extra widespread when it does seem on the schedule.

Whether or not PokerStars chooses to run a standalone Sunday Million Anniversary later this yr stays unsure. It might observe the Sunday Storm celebration or probably be deferred totally, relying on scheduling priorities and market circumstances.

Whereas the Sunday Storm anniversary attracts consideration to PokerStars’ long-running flagship weekly collection, it’s not the one main on-line pageant at present underway.

Irish Open On-line in Full Swing

The Irish Open On-line Afterparty Collection can also be in full swing, working till April 20 with greater than $3 million in assured prize swimming pools throughout 69 occasions. The collection follows the reside Irish Open in Dublin and continues the pageant’s momentum on-line, that includes buy-ins starting from $5.50 to $530 and a large mixture of codecs, together with PKO, thriller bounty, and blended video games.

The $500,000 assured Irish Open On-line Fundamental Occasion is the centerpiece of the collection, alongside different notable occasions comparable to The Craic, scheduled for April 19 with a $100,000 assure on a $55 buy-in. An analogous event, Fáilte, runs on opening day with the identical buy-in and assure.

Whereas it’s not a flagship collection on the size of WCOOP or SCOOP, the schedule nonetheless encompasses a vast mixture of codecs. These embody blended video games comparable to 8-Sport and HORSE, in addition to area of interest variants like 2-7 Triple Draw, No-Restrict Omaha Hello-Lo, Pot-Restrict Omaha Hello-Lo, and 5 Card Omaha.

There’s additionally a powerful selection in event constructions, starting from thriller bounties and progressive knockouts to Zoom heads-up complete knockouts, alongside 3-handed occasions, turbos, hypers, and different fast-paced codecs.

Gamers can qualify by way of satellites already working within the PokerStars consumer, with buy-ins ranging from simply $0.55.