First PokerStars PA Summer Stacks Festival Ends with a Bang, Awards $1.3 Million

Written By Martin Harris on June 29, 2021
Summer Stacks Series ends with a bang.

We’re still a few days away from Fourth of July fireworks. Meanwhile, on PokerStars Pennsylvania the first ever Summer Stacks Festival series concluded last night with a bang.

The last of the 100 events completed last night, with PokerStars PA players winning almost $1.3 million over the course of the series.

Events attract over 35,000 entries, Main Event awards over $132K

All of the Summer Stacks Festival events featured buy-ins of $100 or less, with the overall guarantees for the series totaling $1,045,000.

Ultimately those 100 tournaments attracted 35,376 total entries or a little over 353 per tournament. The $1,295,035.20 awarded meant an average prize pool of about $12,950.

Of course some prize pools were much bigger than others, including the two-day $100 buy-in Main Event that finished Monday night. The Main Event attracted a series-high 1,443 total entries and built the series’ largest prize pool of over $132,000. Player “Ambiter” ended up taking the title and a first prize worth just over $20,000.

There were some overlays along the way, although most were on the small side. Exactly one-fourth or 25 of the tournaments had overlays, totaling about $22,000 altogether. Meanwhile, 16 events had prize pools worth at least 1.5 times the guarantee, with a couple more than doubling the guarantee.

In the end, the Summer Stacks Festival awarded about half the $2.6 million won in the recent Pennsylvania Spring Championship of Online Poker (PASCOOP), a series featuring much bigger guarantees and buy-ins. The guarantees-to-prize-pool ratio was about the same, however, as the PASCOOP guarantees totaled $2 million.

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Ambassador Foresta lands second series win on final day

Among the highlights of the final night of the 17-day series was PokerStars PA Ambassador Mark “NaigoPA” Foresta capturing his second Summer Stacks Festival title in Event #98, the $50 8-Max Nightly Summer Stack. Foresta topped a 413-entry field to win a first prize worth just over $3,400.

Foresta had earlier won a title in one of the Sunday Specials (Event #50), landing a nice first prize of over $11,000.

In the end both Foresta and his fellow PokerStars PA Ambassador Keith “AccidentalGrenade” Becker, a.k.a. “whoopsboom,” collected a number of deep runs in the series as they continue to battle one another along with other PokerStars PA players. Becker made a couple more final tables during the final days, collecting two fifth-place finishes.

PA tops three PokerStars US sites for biggest Summer Stacks series

PokerStars ran separate Summer Stacks Festivals on all three of its US sites from June 12-28.

In Michigan, the series on PokerStars MI featured an almost identical 100-event schedule with guarantees adding up to $1 million even. Meanwhile in New Jersey, the PokerStars NJ version also featured 100 events but with guarantees totaling $500,000.

In the end, PokerStars PA won the “three-handed” competition between PokerStars’ US sites. Its $1.295 million awarded exceeded Michigan’s total of just over $1.09 million. New Jersey came third, with its players winning almost $566,000 in the series.

PokerStars PA also won the competition between the three sites for largest Main Event.

In each case the tournaments were $100 buy-in, two-day tournaments. As noted, in Pennsylvania there were 1,443 entries and a prize pool of over $132,000. In Michigan, the Main Event drew 1,224 entries and had a prize pool of little more than $112,000. The guarantees for both tournaments were $100,000.

Meanwhile in New Jersey, the Main Event had a $50,000 guarantee, and with 539 entries had a small overlay.

PokerStars PA Summer Stacks Festival by the numbers

EventEventBuy-inGuaranteeEntriesPrize PoolOverlay
1NLHE (Summer Stacks Warm Up - Stars-B-Que)$10$4,000 658$5,987.80 n/a
2NLHE (Summer Stacks Kick Off)$100$30,000 347$31,854.60 n/a
3NLHE (Summer Stacks Mini Kick Off)$30$10,000 555$15,151.50 n/a
4NLHE (8-Max, Nightly Summer Stack)$50$12,500 335$15,242.50 n/a
5PLO (6-Max, Progressive KO)$5$1,000 292$1,328.60 n/a
6NLHE$50$8,000 229$10,374.00 n/a
7Razz (6-Max)$10$1,000 138$1,255.80 n/a
8Stud Hi/Lo (6-Max)$50$3,500 85$3,867.50 n/a
9NLHE (6-Max, Sunday Storm - PKO Edition)$10$3,000 402$3,658.20 n/a
10NLHE (Sunday Special)$100$60,000 764$70,135.20 n/a
11NLHE (Mini Sunday Special)$25$10,000 744$16,926.00 n/a
12NLHE (Micro Sunday Special)$5$3,500 722$3,500.00 $214.90
13NLHE (8-Max, Nightly Summer Stack)$50$12,500 366$16,653.00 n/a
14NLHE (The Big Freeze)$100$15,000 181$16,615.80 n/a
15PLO (6-Max)$30$4,000 140$4,000.00 $178.00
16NLHE (6-Max, PKO, Battle Royale Early Ed.)$10$3,500 492$4,477.20 n/a
17NLHE (8-Max, Nightly Summer Stack)$50$10,000 426$19,383.00 n/a
18NLHE (6-Max, Progressive KO, Battle Royale)$50$20,000 393$20,000.00 $2,118.50
19NLHE$5$1,500 432$1,965.60 n/a
20PLO8 (8-Max)$20$2,500 214$3,894.80 n/a
21NLHE (Super Tuesday Early Edition)$10$3,500 554$5,041.40n/a
22NLHE (8-Max, Nightly Summer Stack)$50$10,000 423$19,246.50 n/a
23NLHE (Mini Super Tuesday)$30$10,000 509$13,895.70 n/a
24NLHE (6-Max, Summer Freeze)$50$5,000 137$6,233.50 n/a
25NLHE (8-Max, Turbo, Progressive KO)$10$1,500 357$3,248.70 n/a
26NLHE (6-Max)$20$5,000 255$5,000.00 $359.00
27NLHE (8-Max, Nightly Summer Stack)$50$10,000 356$16,198.00 n/a
28NLHE (6-Max)$100$20,000 190$20,000.00 $2,558.00
29NLHE$30$6,000 254$6,934.20 n/a
308-Game$50$4,000 89$4,049.50 n/a
31NLHE (Progressive KO, Thursday Thrill Early Edition)$10$4,000 527$4,795.70 n/a
32NLHE (8-Max, Nightly Summer Stack)$50$12,500 461$20,975.50 n/a
33NLHE (Progressive KO, Mini Thursday Thrill)$30$10,000 485$13,240.50 n/a
34NLHE (Summer Freeze)$25$3,500 218$4,959.50 n/a
35PLO (6-Max, Turbo)$5$1,000 210$1,000.00 $44.50
36NLHE (4-Max, The Big $10 - 4-max Edition)$10$3,000 298$3,000.00 $288.20
37NLHE (8-Max, Nightly Summer Stack)$50$10,000 295$13,422.50 n/a
38NLHE (8-Max, Mega-Stack Turbo)$100$20,000 278$25,520.40 n/a
39NLHE$20$4,000 278$5,059.60 n/a
40NLHE (6-Max, Hyper-Turbo, Progressive KO)$5$1,000 255$1,198.50 n/a
41NLHE$10$3,000 282$3,000.00 $433.80
42NLHE (6-Max, Saturday Warm Up)$20$5,000 247$5,000.00 $504.60
43NLHE (8-Max, Nightly Summer Stack)$50$12,500 277$12,603.50 n/a
44NLHE (8-Max, Progressive KO, Bigstack)$100$30,000 327$30,018.60 n/a
45NLHE (8-Max, Progressive KO, Bigstack)$30$10,000 422$11,520.60 n/a
46NLHE (6-Max, Summer Freeze)$30$4,000 108$4,000.00 $1,051.60
475-Card PLO (6-Max)$10$1,500 138$1,500.00 $244.20
48HORSE (6-Max)$50$5,000 63$5,000.00 $2,133.50
49NLHE (6-Max, Sunday Storm)$10$3,000 259$3,000.00 $643.10
50NLHE (Sunday Special)$100$65,000 676$65,000.00 $2,943.20
51NLHE (Sunday Special - Mid)$30$15,000 559$15,260.70 n/a
52NLHE (Sunday Special - Low)$5$3,500 635$3,500.00 $610.75
53PLO (6-Max)$30$3,500 95$3,500.00 $906.50
54NLHE (8-Max, Nightly Summer Stack)$20$3,000 217$3,949.40 n/a
55NLHE (Summer Freeze)$50$10,000 286$13,013.00 n/a
56NLHE (7-Max)$5$1,000 419$1,906.45 n/a
57NLHE (8-Max, Nightly Summer Stack)$50$12,500 396$18,018.00 n/a
58NLHE (6-Max, Progressive KO, Battle Royale)$100$25,000 263$25,000.00 $856.60
59NLHE (6-Max, Progressive KO, Mini Battle Royale)$30$10,000 364$10,000.00 $62.80
60NLHE$15$3,000 263$3,589.95 n/a
61NLHE (Super Tuesday Early Edition)$20$6,000 455$8,281.00 n/a
62NLHE (8-Max, Nightly Summer Stack)$50$10,000 365$16,607.50 n/a
63NLHE (Mini Super Tuesday)$75$17,500 407$27,777.75 n/a
64NLHE (6-Max, Summer Freeze)$15$2,500 220$3,003.00 n/a
65NLHE (4-Max, Turbo)$30$4,000 177$4,832.10 n/a
66NLHE (6-Max, The Big $10 - 6-max Edition)$10$3,000 371$3,376.10 n/a
67NLHE (8-Max, Nightly Summer Stack)$50$12,500 410$18,655.00 n/a
68NLHE (6-Max)$50$10,000 212$10,000.00 $354.00
69NLHE$100$15,000 181$16,615.80 n/a
70NLHE (8-Max, Turbo, Progressive KO)$15$2,000 382$5,214.30 n/a
71NLHE (Progressive KO, Thursday Thrill Early Edition)$20$7,000 423$7,698.60 n/a
72NLHE (8-Max, Nightly Summer Stack)$50$12,500 370$16,835.00 n/a
73NLHE (Progressive KO, Mini Thursday Thrill)$75$17,500 333$22,727.25 n/a
74NLHE (Summer Freeze)$50$6,000 108$6,000.00 $1,086.00
75NLHE (6-Max, Hyper-Turbo)$5$1,000 275$1,292.50 n/a
76NLHE (6-Max, Turbo, Fast Friday Early Edition)$15$3,500 278$3,794.70 n/a
77NLHE (8-Max, Nightly Summer Stack)$50$12,500 437$19,883.50 n/a
78NLHE (6-Max, Turbo, Fast Friday)$100$15,000 161$15,000.00 $220.20
79NLHE$75$10,000 192$13,104.00 n/a
80NLHE (Heads-Up, Turbo, Prog. Total KO, Zoom)$20$6,000 410$7,462.00 n/a
81NLHE (8-Max, Afternoon Bigstack)$20$5,000 425$7,735.00 n/a
82Stud (6-Max)$50$3,500 58$3,500.00 $861.00
83NLHE (8-Max, Nightly Summer Stack)$50$15,000 376$17,108.00 n/a
84NLHE (8-Max, Bigstack)$100$25,000 337$30,936.60 n/a
85NLHE (8-Max, Bigstack)$15$5,000 433$5,910.45 n/a
86NLHE (Summer Freeze)$30$4,000 143$4,000.00 $96.10
87NLHE (4-Max)$100$15,000 173$15,881.40 n/a
88NLHE (Sunday Drive)$30$7,500 337$9,200.10 n/a
89NLHE (6-Max, Half Price Sunday Storm)$5$2,500 440$2,500.00 $498.00
90NLHE (Main Event)$100$100,000 1,443$132,467.40 n/a
91NLHE (Main Event - Mid)$30$25,000 1,126$30,730.80 n/a
92NLHE (Main Event - Low)$10$7,500 943$8,581.30 n/a
93NLHE (8-Max, Nightly Summer Stack)$50$10,000 324$14,742.00 n/a
94NLHE (Summer Freeze)$75$7,500 142$9,691.50 n/a
95NLHE (6-Max, Hyper-Turbo, Bigstack)$50$8,000 200$9,400.00 n/a
96NLHE (6-Max, Mega Stack)$5$1,500 455$2,070.25 n/a
97NLHE (Summer Stars)$100$25,000 399$36,628.20 n/a
98NLHE (8-Max, Nightly Summer Stack)$50$15,000 413$18,791.50 n/a
99NLHE (4-Max, Shootout)$30$7,000 146$7,000.00 $3,014.20
100NLHE (Summer Freezeout - Last Call)$10$1,500 256$2,329.60 n/a
TOTALS35,376$1,295,035.20$22,281.25

Lead image c/o Dreamstime. 

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Martin Harris

Martin Harris is a writer and teacher who has reported on poker, online gambling, and sports betting since the mid-2000s. Once a full-time academic (Ph.D., English), he currently teaches part-time in the American Studies program at UNC Charlotte. In 2019, his book Poker & Pop Culture was published by D&B Books.

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