Jul 22, 2020 The exciting PokerStars Stadium Series continues to award massive prizes to players from all four corners of the world and Team PokerStars Pro Lex Veldhuis was one of those big winners.

Jun 26, 2020 You might have heard about Stadium Series coming to PokerStars this summer, which starts on 5 July. It’s a one of a kind event. An extraordinary combination of massive prize pools, added value, and a chance for players of all levels to have a shot at a $5 million Main Event. Go for glory at the Stadium Series from July 5-August 2. Play under the lights of this $50M guaranteed tournament series. It runs over four weeks and includes 102 tournaments. The action includes daily Heat tournaments and Sunday Finals. These have big prize money and big ticket giveaways. 2 tournament types (Heats and Finals). Go for glory at the Stadium Series from July 5-26. Play under the lights of this tournament series that features over €5M in guaranteed prize money. The action includes daily Heat tournaments and Sunday Finals.

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The exciting PokerStars Stadium Series continues to award massive prizes to players from all four corners of the world and Team PokerStars Pro Lex Veldhuis was one of those big winners.

Veldhuis came out on top in the Stadium Series Heat 16-H: $2,100 NLHE, a tournament with $500,000 guaranteed. Tournaments of this magnitude attract the superstars of poker and this event was no different with the entry list reading like a who’s who of the poker world.

Antoine “A.Saout” Saout, Joao “IneedMassari” Simao, Anatoly “NL_Profit” Filatov, and Dominik “Bounatirou” Nitsche were just a handful of the players who made it into the top 31 places where the prize pool was distributed.

Sam “Str8$$$Homey” Greenwood and Christian “eisenhower1” Jeppsson also cashed, with Joao “Naza114” Vieira busting in 10th place and setting the final table.

Stadium Series Pokerstars Calendario

Follow along with weekly PokerNews live coverage from the Stadium Series finals.

British grinder Andrew “stato_1” Hulme was the first finalist to bust and the first player to net a five-figure prize. Hulme collected $10,517. Russia’s “MiracleQ” followed Hulme to the cashier’s desk and got his hands on $13,869 before former EPT Malta champion Aliaksei “ale6ka” Boika crashed and burned in seventh-place for $18,288.

Pablo “pabritz” Brito Silva’s exit in sixth-place made the waters slightly less shark-infested. Veldhuis then tripled up when his aces held against the eights of Anton “Bomber&Granater” Wigg and the queens of Mike “SirWatts” Watson to put him in contention for the title.

Ivan “Negriin” Luca, Wigg and Fedor 'GlitchSystem' Kruse all busted in succession to leave Veldhuis heads-up against Watson. Amazingly, Veldhuis found aces again to send Luca to the showers.

The final hand saw Watson jam for a shade over 10 big blinds with ace-six and Veldhuis look him up with queen-nine of hearts. A queen landed on the turn to bust Watson and resign him to the $72,911, leaving Veldhuis to bank another $96,143 and doing so in front of his legion of Twitch followers.

Stadium Series Freezeout Weekly Final – High: $1,050 NLHE 8-Max, $1.5M Gtd

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The biggest prize of the week’s Stadium Series action went to the Brazilian star Alisson “heyalisson” Piekazewicz. He triumphed over 1,346 opponents in the $1,050 buy-in Freezeout Weekly Final.

Piekazewicz turned his $1,050 into a colossal $216,705 and the title of champion. The elite Brazilian defeated fellow countryman Luan “Pseudo Fruto” Felipe heads-up for the victory, the runner-up banked $185,376.

One other player scooped a six-figure score. That was third-place finisher “Zar77262” of Russia who netted a cool $119,584.

Others who reached the final table included Daniel “Razer2311” Rezaei (9th - $18,128), Teun “tinnoemulder” Mulder (8th - $22,395), and Pascal “FrenchDawg” Lefrancois (4th - $85,694).

The tournament took place under the watchful eye of the PokerNews Live Reporting team. Read a blow-by-blow account of this massive tournament at our live reporting pages.

Stadium Series Freezeout Weekly Final – Medium: $109 NLHE 8-Max, $1.5M Gtd

The $109 weekly final was incredible value because the 11,292-strong crowd enjoyed a $370,800 overlay. This money was added by PokerStars and shared among the top 1,367 finishers.

Everyone at the eight-handed final table banked at least $18,364 for navigating their way there. Belgium’s “Pimello” got their hands on this prize and they were joined on the rail first by “fozzzi” of the Ukraine then Shane “shaniac” Schleger. This was Schleger’s first online cash at PokerStars since August 2015! The man still has skills.

“thx4yours$” and “|Chomprias|0” busted in fifth and fourth-place, the latter scooping $71,123 for their $109 investment. Russia’s “Goallinfishara” saw their tournament end in a third-place finish worth $99,775.

Heads-up pitted “CoolerAHAH” and “Hookz” against each other in a heads-up battle for the $196,355 top prize. Second-place was $139,969, more than $56,000 less so it wasn’t surprising to see the heads-up duo strike a deal. That deal saw CoolerAHAH finish in second and net $160,662 with Hookz banking $175,662.

*reflects a heads-up deal

Some of the other notable victories from the past week’s Stadium Series schedule included:

• “Lifesucksyah” – first-place in Stadium Series Heat 13-H: $1,050 NLHE 8-Max PKO for $124,324*
• Mitch “sirkingmitch” Johnson – first-place in Stadium Series Heat 12-H: $1,050 NLHE 6-Max for $89,248
• “spirrevip” – first-place in Stadium Series Heat 15-H: $1,050 NLHE PKO for $68,262*
• “Aleks Better” – first-place in Stadium Series Heat 11-H: $1,050 NLHE for $65,763
• “veruswelt” – first-place in Stadium Series 14-H: $1,050 NLHE Deep Stack for $65,741
• “lensia” – first-place in Stadium Series Freezeout Weekly Final – Low: $11 for $34,114

How To Get Involved in the Stadium Series

Stadium Series tournaments run every day and continue to do so up until August 2. Head to the PokerStars tournament lobby and buy in now if you have the bankroll for those events. If you don’t have the bankroll for the bigger events, or you simply want to save yourself some cash, there are plenty of other routes into the biggest Stadium Series games.

The Stadium Series Heats are the daily tournaments. The top finishers in these tournaments receive a free ticket to the coveted weekly Stadium Series Sunday Finals. Reach the final tables of these finals and PokerStars gifts you a $5,200 ticket to the Grand Final where you’ll play for a share of a guaranteed $5 million.

Spin & Go specialists can try their luck in the special edition Spin & Go’s. These come with buy-ins of $4 and $22 and award a mixture of cash and Stadium Series tournament tickets.

Don’t forget you can also complete the Stadium Series Trials via the Challenges Window of your PokerStars account. Start the challenge then play real money multi-table tournaments. You earn one leaderboard point for every $1 spent on tournament buy-ins. Finish in the top 25 of the leaderboard when the promotion ends on August 1 and a $5,200 Grand Final ticket is all yours. Finish in 26-125th place and bank a free Stadium Series Fast track Final ticket worth a cool $1,050.

Last, but certainly not least, is the Stadium Series Fast Track program. These are a series of sit & go and MTT tournaments where you can buy into at any stage, but only Stage 4 awards Grand Final tickets.

• Step 1: $1 Sit & Go Tournament (12 players)
• Step 2: $11 Sit & Go Tournament (21 players)
• Step 3: $109 MTT Tournament
• Step 4: $1,050 MTT Tournament

Keep an eye on your email inbox and in the PokerStars lobby for the many planned giveaways. PokerNews has learned PokerStars is giving away more than $2.5 million in Stadium Series tickets and by adding some serious value via other giveaways to make it possible for every player to have a shot at Stadium Series glory.

_{The Stars Group is a majority shareholder in Oddschecker Global Media, the parent company of PokerNews.}

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PokerStarspaid out more than $52 million during the Stadium Series Heats, Weekly Finals, Grand Finals and the handful of side events. That figure is set to rise with the creation of the Stadium Series After Party on August 16 that has more than $1 million guaranteed.

The $5,200 buy-in Stadium Series Grand Final took place under the watchful eyes of the PokerNews Live Reporting team.

Our team was on hand to watch the $5 million guaranteed $5,200 Freezeout Grand Final - High end in a three-way chop with Maxime “Daghemuneguu” Chilaud finish third for $570,220, Vlada “Vlada2108” Stojanovic bust second for $553,932 and Fernando “fviana” Viana collect the $721,235 top prize.

You can read all about the massive Stadium Grand Finals in their own separate article, here.

There were some other massive scores enjoyed by players from around the world since we last caught up with the goings-on in the series. Here are some of the highlights.

Scott Margereson Wins the $5,200 NLHE 6-Max

Scott “Aggro Santos” Margereson turned $5,200 into a cool $119,483 by triumphing in the Stadium Series Heat 26-H: $5,200 NLHE 6-Max event. The field, as you’d expect, was ridiculously stacked, especially when the tournament progressed to the final table.

Everyone here was guaranteed almost $32,000 for their efforts and the pay jumps were quite substantial. By the time Fedor “CrownUpGuy” Holz crashed out in third place, the prize money swelled to $70,429.

Heads-up pitted Margereson against Simon “C. Darwin2” Mattsson and it was Margereson who came out of the one-on-one battle unscathed. Victory weighed in at $119,483 with Mattson banking a still-impressive $91,733.

Talbot Wins Another Stadium Series Event

Parker “tonkaaaa” Talbot helped himself to $261,489 in the $2,100 Weekly Final last week and went on to take down the Stadium Series Heat 29-H: $5,200 NLHE Progressive Knockout for an additional $151,916, with bounties included.

Talbot locked horns at the final table with the likes of Rui “RuiNF” Ferreira, and Mike “SirWatts” Watson before taking on Thomas “WushuTM” Muehloecker heads-up for the title. Talbot brushed aside Muehloecker and resigned him to a consolation prize worth $77,853.

Astedt Takes Home $230K

Niklas “Lena900” Astedt is one of the most feared and respected tournament grinders of all-time. He added to his already glowing reputation, if that’s even possible, by winning the Stadium Series Heat 30-H: $10,300 NLHE event.

Exactly 100 players bought in and they all now lay in Astedt’s wake. The final table was packed tight with the best poker talent in the world. Nobody shone as brightly as Astedt, however, and he secured another $230,434 after sending Jon “apestyles” Van Fleet home in second-place, which saw Van Fleet pad his bankroll with $176,979. Just look at this final table and its payouts.

Germany’s “TheRealKnossi” Smashes Twitch Poker Viewers Record

Nobody really expected someone to break Lex Veldhuis’ Twitch viewer record other than Veldhuis himself. The Dutch PokerStars Pro drew in as many as 50,000 viewers during his deep run in the SCOOP Main Event.

That record was blown out of the water when Frank “Knueppel” Stockhaus made a deep run in a $1,000 Stadium Series event. 'Knueppel' was railed by Jens “TheRealKnossi” Knossalla, a German entertainer with more than one million Instagram followers.

'Knueppel' managed to hit a miraculous river twice on the final table bubble before going on to finish in second place for a huge $117,425. Their viewers topped more than 92,000 as they railed them to Knueppel’s largest career score! That is going to take some beating!

Massive congrats to @TheRealKnossi for breaking my TwitchPoker viewer-record. Actually... he smashed it, from 58.53… https://t.co/kbDCVOhFP5

Get Involved in the Stadium Series After Party!

PokerStars has created a quartet of After Party Phased events to bring the curtain down on the Stadium Series.

These have buy-ins of $1.10, $11, $109, and $105 with guaranteed prize pools worth $100,000, $250,000, $500,000, and $1,000,000 waiting to be won. There are plenty of Phases to enter, survive your Phase 1 by reaching the final 10% of the field to progress to the Phase 2 where the juicy prize pools are awarded.

_{The Stars Group is a majority shareholder in Oddschecker Global Media, the parent company of PokerNews.}

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