PokerStars Revives Mission Weeks
Mission Weeks have returned to PokerStars this month, giving players a chance to win a share of $400,000 in cash prizes on Monday, March 2nd. It is a fairly simple promo, one that does not take much skill to complete, but then again, neither does the tournament at the end of the promotional campaign.
The end goal is the set of eight $50,000 All-in Shootout tournaments on March 2nd. Every player can qualify for up to three of them. To do so, players must complete challenges, or “missions,” laid out by PokerStars. There are ten total missions, but it appears that to qualify for the maximum of three All-in Shootout tournaments, players need only complete two of them.
The first set of missions runs this week, from Monday, February 16th through Sunday, February 22nd. This week is called “Mission Play,” named as such because the missions only require people to play poker, not actually do well. Players must choose from one of the following missions:
• Play 12 real money Sit & Go’s
• Play 15 real money Spin & Go’s
• Play 250 real money Ring Game hands (Zoom excluded)
• Play 250 real money Zoom ring game hands
• Play six scheduled tournaments with a real money buy-in
Upon completion of the selected mission, the player will receive a ticket for a Mission Play All-in Shootout. There are three shootouts from which to choose: 06:47 ET, 07:47 ET, or 8:47 ET on March 2nd.
The second set of missions, Mission Win, goes from Monday, February 23rd, through Sunday, March 1st. These are different from the Play missions in that to accomplish any of these feats, a player actually has to win some hands. Here they are:
• Place first in two real money Sit & Go’s with at least six entrants
• Place first in four real money Spin & Go’s
• Win 10 real money ring game hands at showdown
• Win 10 real money Zoom ring game hands at showdown
• Cash in one scheduled tournament with a real money buy-in
For the tournament missions above, the end time of the tournament or the time at which a player cashes that is recorded, so it is important to be sure tournaments are started in plenty of time to meet the deadline for Mission Win week. As with Mission Play, players will be awarded a ticket to a Mission Win All-in Shootout upon completion of a single mission. The tourneys are at 09:47 ET, 10:47 ET, or 11:47 ET on March 2nd.
Then there is a Bonus Mission, which is not so much of a “mission” as it is just a simple “bonus.” All players have to do is complete one Mission Play task and one Mission Win task and the Bonus Mission reward is theirs. It’s another tournament ticket, this time to the Bonus Mission All-in Shootout, taking place at either 12:47 ET or 13:47 ET on March 2nd.
There a few things to note with this promotion. Players must “Start” the missions by opening the Challenges Window in the PokerStars client and clicking “Start” on one of the available missions. Once a mission is chosen, that’s it – it can’t be changed. Only one ticket is awarded per group of missions for a maximum of three tournament tickets over the course of the promotion. So while there are eight total All-in Shootouts, nobody may participate in more than three.
Once a ticket is awarded, the player will need to manually register for one of the applicable tournaments (one of three for Mission Play, one of three for Mission Win, and one of two for the Bonus Mission). Since these are “all-in” tournaments, every player is automatically put all-in at the start of each hand. Thus, there is no skill involved. In fact, PokerStars doesn’t even require players to be logged in to play – they just need to register in advance. Once the tournament starts, the software does all the heavy lifting. Each tournament has a $50,000 prize pool with $5,000 going to the winner.
Remember, all players must “Start” a mission for any progress to be recorded. If, for example, a player is gunning for the four real money Spin & Go victories in the Mission Win, has won three of them, and then realizes that he forgot to hit “Start,” he will still need to win four total Spin & Go’s to achieve the goal. Those first three wins will not have counted. Mission progress can be checked at any time.
Each All-in Shootout tournament has a maximum player capacity of 60,000 and are first come, first served. Since players need not be present when the tournament starts, it really doesn’t matter which tournament anyone registers for, aside from the fact that tournaments with smaller fields offer a better chance to win and greater equity.
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