Tick Tock Tick Tock....

Every so often, PokerStars will run a tournament on a trial basis and a few weeks ago I found myself playing one of them to give it a try as the concept really appealed to me.  It was a $2 turbo that lasted only 30 minutes.  I have fun in tournaments that employ different strategies, whether it is the game type (split pot, 8 game, etc.), the structure (turbos, deep stack, etc.) or now the hard stop of a tournament.  In these timed tournaments, you could see many different styles of play coming together, including the player who was quickly gambling and trying to amass all the chips for the impending chop (these tournaments pay out according to the size of each players stack), the player who was taking their time for every decision (trying to hang on to min cash) and the player who was playing a bit more cautiously recognizing that building a table image had less value.  

In my opinion, one of the greatest drawbacks of tournaments can be the uncertainty of when it will end.  Grinding tournaments can be tough on your social life, it is hard to commit to a set time for anything, whether dinner, a movie, or a sporting event!  These Time Tourneys give you the fun of a big multi table tournament, without having to commit your whole evening to poker.  It is also nice to be able to get a good nights sleep before heading off to work in the morning!  Needless to say, I am happy that the trial of this style of tournament was a success and that Time Tourneys will now be in the regular schedule at PokerStars.  

Look for these tournaments in the lobby, they will run for a varied amount of time (from a minimum of 15 minutes to a maximum of 180 minutes) at which time the payouts are established based on stack size of the remaining players.  You can give this tournament a try, for as little as $1, they are most easily found by looking under the “Tourney” tab, they have a little stop watch icon, or you can use the Tourney Filter at the bottom to find them.  

If you can, make a deposit of $30 or more and use the code “TIME” until October 21rst and PokerStars will give you one ticket for a $5.50 Time Tourney Ticket that can be used until 23:59 EST on October 21rst.  

These tournaments are a perfect addition to the lineup, and will suit so many recreational players, or in general people who lead busy lives that want to play tournaments, but can’t commit 8 hours (or longer) to a session.  If you are allotted two hours to play some poker on a weekend....be sure to look at the newest addititon to the Saturday Line-Up, it’s a $22 Time Tourney (two hours total) that will fire up every Saturday starting at 13:00 EST.   The prize pool is a guaranteed $10,000 (check it out on the 22nd...for a DOUBLE guarantee)...so come get whatever piece your stack is worth after two hours!  

As always, if you have any questions get in touch with support@pokerstars.