PokerStarsNJ NJCOOP Series Awards Over $1.2 Million
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Since entering the New Jersey market in 2014, PokerStarsNJ has been a major player among a market share that includes partypokerNJ and 888poker. PokerStarsNJ also features an NJSCOOP series, which ran this year in May.
Most of the PokerStarsNJ events follow a similar structure to their PokerStars counterpart and include many of the traditional favorites including the Big and Hot events and the Sunday Special.
The series started on September 30 and is now in the books and a few storylines were able to take shape over the course of it.
Dan DiZenzo claims Main Event win
The NJCOOP Main Event put a $200,000 guarantee up for grabs and featured a small overlay for the 420 entrants. New Jersey native and tournament professional Dan DiZenzo took down the title and the $36,015 first place prize. The win is the first for DiZenzo in an online major and his largest career online score, according to PocketFives.
Among the notable players who cashed in the event were reigning World Series of Poker Main Event champion Scott Blumstein and 2003 winner Chris Moneymaker. Blumstein played under his screen name of ‘WoAtSnJoEs11’ and Moneymaker used his ‘800MoneyNJ’ moniker.
Blumstein bowed out shy of the final table in 10th place and Moneymaker fell in 28th.
Moneymaker wasn’t the only PokerStars ambassador to play in NJCOOP as Victor Ramdin also registered a fair amount of events.
Last year, the NJCOOP Main Event also put up a $200,000 guarantee and had a small overlay. The event drew 425 entrants and was won by Jesse Elliott for $38,380. Blumstein made a deep run in that tournament as well, placing fourth to collect $16,000.
Additionally, Darren Elias and PokerStars team pro Jason Mercier cashed in the event but neither participated in 2017.
Other events on the schedule
The largest buy-in on the NJCOOP schedule was the $1,000 High Roller Six-Max event. A guarantee of $80,000 was put in place and slightly overlayed as well.
Moneymaker won an NJCOOP title during his stay in the Garden State on October 9. The $500 Pot Limit Omaha event attracted 58 runners and Moneymaker emerged on top to claim the $9,000 payout. Moneymaker beat BorgataPoker.com representative Michael Gagliano to win the title.
Most of the events on the NJCOOP schedule were geared toward no-limit hold’em. Among the varieties of hold’em events available were heads Up, four-max, six-max, turbo, and win the button.
Mixed game events included an 8-game event, five-card PLO, and triple stud.
NJCOOP had its fair share of overlays but there were no prize pool droughts in place to cause any immediate cause for concern. If anything, PokerStars and StarsNJ showed once again that they are willing to put relatively sizable guarantees in place knowing that both the local New Jersey players and state outsiders will turn out for them.
What’s on the horizon for the state?
With the passing of legislature in Pennsylvania to regulate online gaming along with the agreement made by New Jersey, Nevada, and Delaware to share player pools, the outlook is bright for the state.
The formal date of Pennsylvania’s online gaming bill has yet to be formally announced and once it is, it will be interesting to see if the state decides to allow their players to join forces with the three others who have online poker.
In the meantime, PokerStarsNJ is continuing to move forward with their standard weekly schedule of events that include a $100 Nightly $10,000 guaranteed tournament and a Sunday $500 High Roller six-max.